This research aims to develop a policy evaluation system and future strategies for 「Happy Parents Projects」(HPPs) of Seoul Metropolitan Government. The HPPs is a five-year (2022~2026) masterplan consisting of 5 sectors, 15 strategies, and 52 projects to improve parental burden and social awareness. However, due to the short policy-making, a policy evaluation system and future strategies were not prepared. This poses difficulties in evidence-based implementation and feedback.
Based on analysis of domestic and foreign policy cases with two surveys on citizens and parents in Seoul, this research created a policy evaluation system and confirmed it by a third-round of expert Delphi-surveys. First, the 52 projects were segmented and reorganized into evaluation units and 45 projects were selected for evaluation. Second, 15 strategies were restructured into 14 to clarify evaluation issues and objects. Third, key indicators were developed by each strategy, not by sector or project. Delphi-surveys reviewed all of them and finalized 18 key indicators that passed the S.M.A.R.T. criteria.
The whole evaluation for HPPs derived a process consisting of annual monitoring, evaluation, calculation of index, and feedback. It proposes three in-depth evaluation assignments that are difficult to cover in the overall HPPs evaluation and a plan to use the 「Seoul Family Survey」 and the 「Seoul Parents Survey」 to allow citizens to comment on and evaluate HPPs.
Finally, this research diagnoses that HPPs is mainly dedicated to infants (age), services (policy measure), and universal support (level of intervention) by the role and authority of local governments. In order to effectively achieve policy goals, it is necessary to focus on areas that are currently lacking, in line with the declining birthrate and changes in government policies.