Modernising Regulation or Regulating Modernisation? The Public, Private and Voluntary Interface in Adult Social Care

Abstract

Regulation is a very significant form of managing public services in Britain, as central government increasingly relies upon regulatory agencies and mechanisms to measure and improve the performance of agencies delivering public services. The present Labour Government's modernisation strategy has strengthened the key role of state-sponsored regulation of public services, including social care. A key plank to its modernisation agenda facing public services, and underpinned by Third Way thinking, is a move towards partnerships and collaborative governance embracing public, private and voluntary sector bodies in the delivery of public services. In the case of adult social care, this push furthers moves towards a mixed economy of welfare, where ideological ‘state-versus-market’ arguments take backstage to managerialist discussions about ‘what works’. Public service regulation represents a ‘third way’ between state and market provision of public services. Our preliminary research findings support the view that regulation of adult social care, though not new nor without its tensions, has been and is being transformed as New Labour's modernisation programme of reforming public services increasingly takes hold, and that the transformed adult social care regulatory regime is consistent with and informed by Third Way thinking.