Human and social services

What EY teams can do for you

The demand for human services (social services) has never been greater. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector faced increasing demand for services due to ageing populations, changing employment trends, rising housing costs, income inequalities and escalating drug and alcohol abuse.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has estimated that human services organizations around the world will need to spend an additional US$7tr by 2030 in social care support for children, women, the elderly and other vulnerable populations.

While the demand, as well as citizens’ expectations of the services, is increasing, social care organizations are overwhelmed, under-resourced, under-funded and fragmented.

It is time to re-think and transform how human services are delivered. Technology has a significant role to play in improving efficiencies across organizations and delivering positive outcomes for vulnerable people in the social care system.

At EY, our Human Services professionals around the world share an ambition to support the transformative work needed to make a real change in the sector. EY brings together bespoke teams of professionals to provide services that include:

• Mission and strategy: As the pace of change across markets accelerates and the sources of disruption increase, human services organizations are searching for new and effective ways to deliver their services. To be successful, government organizations need to be innovative and transform how services are delivered. Using the EY Transformation Realized approach, EY professionals help human services organizations to enhance their ability to adapt to disruption and create more agile operating models that help deliver and sustain long-term value creation and impact.
• Workforce: The need for diverse skills and the limited supply of skilled workers coupled with the shift to hybrid work models are causing a significant demand on human services professionals who are under-resourced and learning how to operate in the digital world. EY teams can support governments with organization and workforce transformation, change management, and learning and development programs to upskill employees with digital skills to transform both the employee and user experience.
• Human-centered design: To create human services organizations that serve the public, it is imperative to understand what constituents, residents, and workers need and want before designing systems. Designing with digital enablement in mind as well as traditional communication channels is also required to meet the needs of different demographic groups. EY professionals can apply design-thinking and journey mapping to create a better end-to-end experience for users and employees.
• Data for purpose: Data offers tremendous potential to create value by improving programs and policies, driving efficiencies and empowering individuals in the care system. A growing number of human services organizations are leveraging data as a strategic asset by using advanced information systems, artificial intelligence and analytics.  At the same time, governments must balance the potential benefits against privacy concerns and the risk of misuse. EY professionals have the experience and expertise to guide organizations from data strategy and governance through to implementation. Examples of EY’s work in this area:
  • EY teams pioneered a new approach to identify vulnerable individuals and families at risk of homelessness, abuse and other social issues. The tool enables local governments to put measures in place to support vulnerable residents and prevent them from reaching crisis point. Read more about how we helped London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, UK and Hillsborough County, Florida, US.
  •  The EY Vulnerable Person Platform focuses on redesigning service delivery models using an intelligent data and analytics platform to deliver pro-active support for the community. Read how the platform helped the government of New South Wales, Australia to create a single view of vulnerable children.
• Ecosystem engagement: Governments are trying harder than ever to engage with communities and introduce social schemes and programs that benefit all sections of society.  However, the benefits often don’t reach the targeted population due to lack of awareness, government procedures, biases towards specific communities or lack of inclusive or equity-centered design-thinking. EY teams can support organizations to identify “paths of trust”, extensive demographic data collection, and engagement strategies.
• Social detriments of health: Understanding the social determinants of health such as where people are born, live, work, play, worship, and their age have become a key area of focus for governments as they develop policies to solve societal issues. EY teams can provide training in qualitative research, measurement, tracking and reporting to help identify and locate vulnerable populations. This enables organizations to deliver strategic policies, allocate funds, resources and programs more efficiently and use early intervention to prevent issues from escalating.
• Grant management: Governments are facing multiple planning and administration issues across the grant funding cycle, such as poor strategic planning, inadequate due diligence, fraud and embezzlement. In the US, EY teams provide grant management services to assist state departments with the disbursement of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Child Care Development Block Grant and Child Care Stabilization Funds.