Social Dev. Ministry provides customer service training for its staff

The Ministry of Social Development and Family Services (MSDFS) has embarked on a series of training sessions for staff members in a bid to improve communication and services to all stakeholders, especially their clients and members of the general public.

The staff of the Social Welfare Division inclusive of the Division’s frontline staff, as well as the MSDFS’s Customer Service Representatives, are especially targeted to attend these sessions, which are facilitated by the Ministry’s Development Support Unit (DSU); in collaboration with senior officials of the Social Welfare Division (SWD).

The second stint of SWD Orientation sessions comprising of five two-day sessions commenced on Tuesday 22^nd September, 2020 at the Tunapuna Social Services Centre, and will continue for a period of five weeks, which will culminate on Wednesday 14^th October, 2020.

The attendees will receive additional training in ALL Social Welfare grants that are available from the MSDFS and the processes involved for each grant application. These include, inter alia, Senior Citizens’ Pension, Disability Assistance, Public Assistance, Food Support, Education Grants and General Assistance Grants. Training Workshops will also include a general overview of all Divisions and Units within the MSDFS as well as an introduction to Client Care.

The Ministry’s vulnerable clients and their accompanying sensitive circumstances may on occasion warrant the intervention of the National Family Services Division (NSFD).  As such, this Division is also playing an integral part in imparting necessary knowledge and methods on how staffers should treat with the psychology of the clients.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MSDFS has been the Government’s frontline agency in implementing social relief grants and other support measures to thousands of citizens. This has resulted in a high influx of client visits to Social Services Offices across the country.

In this regard, the MSDFS has deemed the additional training for staff necessary to address the skill gaps and facilitate knowledge transfer related to the processing of all grants of the SWD and further ensure that the Ministry’s mandate of “Helping, Empowering and Transforming Lives” remain the focal point in the dissemination of services to the stakeholders.