Never have welfare service providers had a more vital role to play in people’s lives.1Even before COVID-19 hit, the need for government assistance was rising steadily in many countries, spurred by trends such as ageing populations.

But the pandemic—and the measures to contain it—intensified the strains on the elderly and other vulnerable groups, especially the unemployed: in the first half of 2020, nearly 600 million full-time jobs were lost worldwide.

Welfare service providers have been on the front line of the crisis, deploying critical services and handling an explosion in workload. But while their response has been extraordinary, the pandemic has exposed entrenched vulnerabilities in their organisational structures, delivery models and systems.

What’s clear is that legacy ways of working and delivering services won’t stand up to future demands—and that these must be reinvented to meet society’s changing needs and expectations.