Service Delivery Arrangements Research Articles

Local Government Volunteer Use: A Resource Dependence and Transaction Costs Explanation

Abstract Volunteer use in the United States constitutes a service delivery alternative in which public agencies involve citizens to assist in delivering public services. This article provides a resource dependence and transaction costs explanation for why local governments in the United States may involve volunteers in service delivery. Using a survey of local government service delivery arrangements, we analyze a repeated cross‐sectional dataset derived from four separate years to examine the factors associated with volunteer use. Key findings suggest that fiscal constraints are associated with volunteer use in more municipal government services, while county governments with more resources use volunteers in more services. Contracting out to private organizations is associated with more volunteer use in both municipalities and counties. The findings provide evidence that volunteer use constitutes an effort by local governments in the United States to leverage resources from the environment and to reduce the transaction costs of depending on other organizations. Evidence for Practice To capitalize on resources available in the environment, local governments may use volunteers in service delivery. Local governments confronting fiscal constraints may use volunteers to deliver more services. Local governments that contract out more services to private organizations may use volunteers in more services to lower administrative costs. Volunteer use may serve as a strategy for local governments to leverage resources from the environment and to reduce the transaction costs of depending on other organizations.

The Dilemma between Self-Protection and Service Provision under Danish COVID-19 Guidelines: A Comparison of Public Servants’ Experiences in the Pandemic Frontline

To explore how COVID-19 altered public service provision and what lessons were learned from the first months, this study draws on sickness absence data, employee feedback data, fieldwork among vulnerable families and qualitative interviews with public servants responsible for vulnerable youngsters, children and families in four Danish towns. The analyses find evidence of a dilemma between self-protection and service provision across towns and public servants from the police and social departments. A relationship between situational knowledge and service delivery arrangements is uncovered and used to discuss the role of autonomy in public service provision within street-level bureaucracy theory. Note: In the interests of space, street-level theory and the pandemic context underpinning the articles for this special issue are discussed in detail in the Introduction to the issue.

Implementation of the clinical practice guideline for individuals with amputations in Colombia: a qualitative study on perceived barriers and facilitators

BackgroundThe issue of lower extremity amputation has been in the Colombian political agenda for its relationship with the armed conflict and antipersonnel mines. In 2015 the Colombian Ministry of Health published a national clinical practice guideline (CPG) for amputee patients. However, there is a need to design implementation strategies that target end-users and the context in which the CPG will be used. This study aims to identify users’ perceptions about the barriers and facilitators for implementing the guideline for the care of amputee patients in a middle-income country such as Colombia.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 users, including patients, health workers, and administrative staff of institutions of the health system in Colombia. Individuals were purposively selected to ensure different perspectives, allowing a balance of individual positions.ResultsAccording to participants’ perceptions, barriers to implementation are classified as individual barriers (characteristics of the amputee patient and professionals), health system barriers (resource availability, timely care, information systems, service costs, and regulatory changes), and barriers related to clinical practice guidelines (utility, methodological rigour, implementation flexibility, and characteristics of the group developing the guidelines).ConclusionsOur study advances knowledge on the perceived individual and health system barriers and facilitators for the implementation of the CPG for amputee patients in Colombia. Importantly, the governance, financial, and service delivery arrangements of the Colombian health system are determining factors in implementing CPGs. For example, the financial arrangements between the insurance companies and the health care provider institutions were identified as barriers for the implementation of recommendations related to the continuity and opportunity of care of patients with amputations. The design of implementation strategies that successfully address the individual behaviours and the contextual health systems arrangements may significantly impact the health care process for amputee patients in Colombia.

Understanding the diversity of alliance governance in OECD healthcare settings

PurposeHealthcare alliances are a mechanism for developing collaborative and integrated care governance and service delivery arrangements. Yet is not known how widespread alliance arrangements are in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, how alliances function or how effective they are. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of alliances in OECD countries, including key areas covered and how performance is measured.Design/methodology/approachA structured narrative review of literature published between 2010 and 2018 was undertaken, focussed on OECD countries. The literature included peer-reviewed articles as well as publications from key policy analysis organisations.FindingsMany OECD countries have implemented integrated care models but only a small number had explicitly adopted health alliances that link primary and secondary providers under joint governance arrangements. Most alliances are pilot initiatives and not broadly adopted. Most had not adopted a unified performance measurement framework.Practical implicationsPolicy makers and service providers interested in joint governance arrangements that support integration must consider the range of potential options overviewed in this paper, as well as how to create supportive performance measurement frameworks.Originality/valueThis is the first narrative review of alliance arrangements in OECD countries. It provides an overview of arrangements, while illustrating that there is considerable scope for further alliance development.

Towards a typology of inter-municipal cooperation in emerging metropolitan regions. A case study in the solid waste management sector in Ecuador

Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is a widely studied governance solution. Most literature defines IMC as a particular service delivery arrangement. However, we argue that IMC manifests itself in s...

Varieties of collaboration in public service delivery

Collaboration – and its cognates consultative in-house service delivery, contracting out, commissioning, co-management, co-production, and third party certification – have in recent years been at the center of efforts to reform the public sector and devolve its capacity for policy implementation and service delivery. While the arguments in support of the use of different types of collaborative service delivery are plausible and the intentions motivating them laudable, the crucial questions to ask are: what kind of service delivery arrangement is “collaborative?” And, when could such an arrangement be used? Seeking answers to posed questions this article, and articles in the special issue it introduces, conceptualize and explore alternative arrangements in public service delivery by investigating them though governance lenses. After addressing the nature and collaborative potential for each type of service delivery, the article situates them in the model of capacity combining analytical, managerial, and political competences over three levels of governance activities. It shows that while the success of all collaborative arrangements for public service delivery is linked to political capacities, each arrangement involves a critical type of managerial or analytical capacity which serves as its principle vulnerability. The extent to which various collaborative arrangements can address these vulnerabilities is assessed along with their design requisites and potential utility.

Understanding Local Service Delivery Arrangements: Are the ICMA ASD Data Reliable?

Abstract The authors utilize the two latest ICMA Profile of Local Government Service Delivery Choices surveys to investigate whether the service provision and delivery arrangement information reported in the surveys accurately represents reality and, if not, what factors contribute to generating incorrect or unreliable survey responses. Interviews with practitioners are used to better understand both the accuracy of the survey responses and improvements that could be made to the survey instrument. Results suggest that the ICMA ASD survey data are highly erratic, with more than 70 percent of the cases (N = 70) investigated containing some inaccuracies. A qualitative analysis shows that the majority of the errors appear to be caused by the lack of a clear definition of service provision or by the service titles being too vague or too broad, both of which likely lead to discretion in interpreting survey questions and thus inconsistent answers by individual respondents over time.

The hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control

PurposeThis paper aims to trace the hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the contexts that gave rise to hybridisation than do previous accountability research frameworks.Design/methodology/approachUsing practice theory, this paper interprets the findings from a field study of Newcastle City Council and a review of relevant local authority regulation for England, stretching back to the 1980s.FindingsThe hybridisation of financial and service expertise has entailed major changes to the practices on which local authority management depends, fuelled by a changing societal role of local authorities. Frequently, local authorities are no longer providers of public services but enablers who purchase services and manage arms-length contracts. This paper identifies some of the ways in which three structural elements that underpin local authority management practices have evolved to give rise to novel practices.Research limitations/implicationsEven though this paper’s research into changing regulatory frameworks, rules and evolving local authority financial practices is based on institutional changes in England since the 1980s, the fieldwork element which fleshes out certain implications for local authority practices has focused on Newcastle City Council. Future research could fruitfully examine these issues in other local authorities.Practical implicationsThe hybridisation of financial and service expertise has contributed to reshaping local government beyond the rules that are put in place for regulating the sector by giving rise to new practices. Recent key developments include new service delivery arrangements, for example, through council-owned subsidiaries or third-sector organisations. It is important that, in an austerity context, new risks to “off the books” service quality is matched by new control and audit arrangements. Moreover, the professional bodies that service local government should recognise the new forms of hybridisation of finance and service expertise and ensure arrangements for the changing skill sets of those involved in service provision.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to analyse the emergence of hybrid financial expertise in the public sector with reference to distinct structural elements of the relevant practices.

Assessing the impacts of transaction costs and rapid growth on local government service provision and delivery arrangement choices in North Dakota

Local governments pressured by fiscal stress have long privatized public service provision to decrease costs or maintain service levels (Greene, 1999). While considerable research has considered contracting behaviors of 'mature,' urban and suburban communities for services which they already are, or are capable of, providing (e.g. Brown and Potoski, 2003), what happens in small communities faced with a rapid influx of population and resources? Do factors shaping contracting in larger, resource-constrained locations apply to expanding cities under conditions of opportunity? Are growing cities' service options limited by a lack of existing capacity, or expanded by additional resources to allow innovative delivery arrangements?Western North Dakota is currently experiencing an oil boom, doubling local populations in half a decade and dramatically impacting demand for public services. Using original data from over 100 North Dakota cities and counties in 2014, this paper models the impact of service and market-specific transaction costs, changes in resources and service demand, and other community factors on public officials' choices among delivery arrangement modes when contracting out for local services.

Performance for Accountability: The Case of Joint Agreements in a Federal System

ABSTRACTCan performance management contribute to strengthening accountability in joint agreements in a federal system? A case study approach is used to analyze implementation of the Australian National Education Agreement as a joint agreement between the commonwealth and state governments. Special attention is directed to the Australian government’s Reform Council as both a completely new aspect of intergovernmental relations and the manifest application of performance management as a key component of joint agreements. The study demonstrates that performance management has limited capacity for strengthening accountability in federal agreements, observing a need to examine new approaches that attempt to accommodate new types of performance systems to more effectively improve joint service delivery arrangements and strengthen accountability mechanisms. Given the prevalence of performance management in Western policy administration, there is value in analyzing how, if it is to remain, performance management can be improved. To identify a path forward, Bouckaert and Halligan’s performance management theoretical framework is employed to provide an additional layer of analysis. The central argument post-analysis is that the effective application of performance measurement and management to promote accountability in federal joint agreements will require approaches based on vertical and horizontal cooperation between levels of government.

Is Contracting out of Public Services still the Great Panacea? A Systematic Review of Studies on Economic and Quality Effects from 2000 to 2014

AbstractThis article presents the results of a systematic review of international studies on economic and quality effects of contracting out published in the period from 2000 to 2014. We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature and identified 49 relevant studies. There are three main findings of the systematic review: (1) cost savings documented in international contracting out literature have been decreasing over time; (2) cost savings have been much greater in technical services than in social services; and (3) economic effects have been twice as large in Anglo‐Saxon countries compared with other countries. With regard to measuring the effect of contracting out on service quality, which is a vital component of any service delivery arrangement, very few studies assess this issue in a comprehensive manner. There is also a significant lack of studies that include measures of transaction costs, thereby making it difficult to evaluate the impact of contracting out on overall cost‐effectiveness of public service delivery. We conclude that generalization of effects from contracting out should be made with caution and are likely to depend, among other things, on the transaction costs characteristics of the service, the market situation and the institutional/regulatory setting.

Risks Involved in Transit Provision of Bus Contracts

To design and evaluate contractual arrangements for transit service delivery, it is crucial to understand the risks assumed by the actors involved. This understanding in turn clarifies the incentive structures of the contracts and their expected effects as well as explains the performance and development of public transport systems. This study examined urban bus contracts and presented a framework that grouped the risks inherent in any transit system, extended the usual dimensions of the analysis, and allowed for the examination of more complex contracts. This methodology was applied to current contracts of Transantiago, in Chile, which had been in effect since mid-2012, and showed that various contractual mechanisms transferred risks to the transit authorities. These mechanisms were shown to reduce operators’ revenue risk from 70% to around 25%, to weaken incentives, and to move the system further away from the 2012 reform objectives. This situation contributed to the persistence of a serious problem of buses skipping stops and fare evasion. In addition, a large proportion of users were captive to a single operator; this setup generated incentive issues in service planning. The analysis advised against the inclusion of demand risk reduction clauses because they might guarantee part of the operators’ income. Instead, stronger incentives could be generated by reducing the importance of the passengers transported in the payment formula while increasing that of service indicators. Complementarily, new solutions to the system’s remaining problems are suggested for further research, such as direct penalties for skipping stops or payments directly linked to fare evasion rates.

Citizens' Blame of Politicians for Public Service Failure: Experimental Evidence about Blame Reduction through Delegation and Contracting

AbstractTheories of blame suggest that contracting out public service delivery reduces citizens’ blame of politicians for service failure. The authors use an online experiment with 1,000 citizen participants to estimate the effects of information cues summarizing service delivery arrangements on citizens’ blame of English local government politicians for poor street maintenance. Participants were randomized to one of four cues: no information about service delivery arrangements, politicians’ involvement in managing delivery, delegation to a unit inside government managing delivery, and delegation through a contract with a private firm managing delivery. The politicians managing delivery cue raises blame compared to citizens having no information. However, the contract with a private firm cue does not reduce blame compared to either no information or the politicians managing delivery cue. Instead, the delegation to a unit inside government cue reduces blame compared to politicians managing delivery, suggesting that delegation to public managers, not contracting, reduces blame in this context.

Service Shedding in Local Governments: Why Do They Do It?

Using four consecutive International City/County Management Association alternative service delivery arrangement surveys, this study explores the determinants of service shedding by local government in the United States. Our findings indicate that service shedding is fairly common, with almost 70% of jurisdictions experiencing at least one termination between 1992 and 1997. With regards to why jurisdictions shed services, we find that prior delivery mode is very influential. Specifically, services that were contracted out in the previous time period are much more likely to be dropped than are those that were produced in-house. We also find that the behavior of neighboring jurisdictions matters—if your neighbors tend to provide a service, you tend to continue to do so as well. We find little support for the idea that either budget stress or ideology is impactful in the decision to drop services.

The challenges of reshaping disease specific and care oriented community based services towards comprehensive goals: a situation appraisal in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

BackgroundSimilar to other countries in the region, South Africa is currently reorienting a loosely structured and highly diverse community care system that evolved around HIV and TB, into a formalized, comprehensive and integrated primary health care outreach programme, based on community health workers (CHWs). While the difficulties of establishing national CHW programmes are well described, the reshaping of disease specific and care oriented community services, based outside the formal health system, poses particular challenges. This paper is an in-depth case study of the challenges of implementing reforms to community based services (CBS) in one province of South Africa.MethodsA multi-method situation appraisal of CBS in the Western Cape Province was conducted over eight months in close collaboration with provincial stakeholders. The appraisal mapped the roles and service delivery, human resource, financing and governance arrangements of an extensive non-governmental organisation (NGO) contracted and CHW based service delivery infrastructure that emerged over 15–20 years in this province. It also gathered the perspectives of a wide range of actors – including communities, users, NGOs, PHC providers and managers - on the current state and future visions of CBS.ResultsWhile there was wide support for new approaches to CBS, there are a number of challenges to achieving this. Although largely government funded, the community based delivery platform remains marginal to the formal public primary health care (PHC) and district health systems. CHW roles evolved from a system of home based care and are limited in scope. There is a high turnover of cadres, and support systems (supervision, monitoring, financing, training), coordination between CHWs, NGOs and PHC facilities, and sub-district capacity for planning and management of CBS are all poorly developed.ConclusionsReorienting community based services that have their origins in care responses to HIV and TB presents an inter-related set of resource mobilisation, system design and governance challenges. These include not only formalising community based teams themselves, but also the forging of new roles, relationships and mind-sets within the primary health care system, and creating greater capacity for contracting and engaging a plural set of actors - government, NGO and community - at district and sub-district level.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-1109-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Financing India’s Urban Infrastructure

Cities in India are envisioned as engines of growth but they suffer from severe service shortages. The realisation of the full potential of cities depends crucially on their ability in meeting the challenges of providing urban infrastructure on a sustainable basis. This article, therefore, reviews the current financing options for urban infrastructure and discusses the strategies for pursuing reform agenda needed to strengthen financial health of the municipalities. Given the inadequacies of the municipal financial resources and capacities, this article emphasises on the need for an integrated policy and regulatory environment, in which urban local bodies (ULBs) can enhance their capacities to generate resources from existing sources at their disposal and also can better utilise innovative sources of infrastructure financing. In particular, possible reform actions to improve municipal finance are clarifications in institutional arrangements for service delivery, true local financial autonomy, sustainable finances supported by user charges, restructuring of intergovernmental grants to incentivise reform with greater assistances for smaller cities, encouraging public–private partnerships (PPPs), deepening of the municipal bond market, local capacity building, strengthening regulatory framework of service delivery and public participation.

Whole-system change: case study of factors facilitating early implementation of a primary health care reform in a South African province.

BackgroundWhole-system interventions are those that entail system wide changes in goals, service delivery arrangements and relationships between actors, requiring approaches to implementation that go beyond projects or programmes.MethodsDrawing on concepts from complexity theory, this paper describes the catalysts to implementation of a whole-system intervention in the North West Province of South Africa. This province was an early adopter of a national primary health care (PHC) strategy that included the establishment of PHC outreach teams based on generalist community health workers. We interviewed a cross section of provincial actors, from senior to frontline, observed processes and reviewed secondary data, to construct a descriptive-explanatory case study of early implementation of the PHC outreach team strategy and the factors facilitating this in the province.ResultsImplementation of the PHC outreach team strategy was characterised by the following features: 1) A favourable provincial context of a well established district and sub-district health system and long standing values in support of PHC; 2) The forging of a collective vision for the new strategy that built on prior history and values and that led to distributed leadership and ownership of the new policy; 3) An implementation strategy that ensured alignment of systems (information, human resources) and appropriate sequencing of activities (planning, training, piloting, household campaigns); 4) The privileging of ‘community dialogues’ and local manager participation in the early phases; 5) The establishment of special implementation structures: a PHC Task Team (chaired by a senior provincial manager) to enable feedback and ensure accountability, and an NGO partnership that provided flexible support for implementation.ConclusionsThese features resonate with the deliberative, multi-level and context sensitive approaches described as the “simple rules” of successful PHC system change in other settings. Although implementation was not without tensions and weaknesses, particularly at the front-line of the PHC system, the case study highlights how a collective vision can facilitate commitment to and engagement with new policy in complex organisational environments. Successful adoption does not, however, guarantee sustained implementation at scale, and we consider the challenges to further implementation.

Public-Private Service Delivery Arrangements and Incentive Schemes in Developing Asia

In many countries, public agencies or private firms are gradually moving away from being exclusive providers of goods and services that traditionally were assigned to the state or markets, respectively. Instead, state agencies, both at the national and the local level, and private organizations, both for-profit firms and nongovernment organizations (NGOs), increasingly coordinate, collaborate, or partner to finance, produce, or provide public services. This paper attempts to identify the factors that account for the successes or failures of such public-private service delivery arrangements, with a focus on the role of monetary and nonmonetary incentives used in selected case studies in developing Asia. It finds that such arrangements are a viable service delivery mechanism where there is a state or market failure. While governments now increasingly enter into such partnerships, they appear to do so more with for-profit firms than with NGOs. A key lesson is to mobilize potential private sector partners, match the partner’s mission with the appropriate type or level of service provision, and then motivate them with the right incentives but also monitor them for performance accordingly.

Illuminating the in-house provision of emergency services: A test of organizational capacity hypotheses

While much has been written about the importance of organizational capacity, few have examined systematically the influence of organizational capacity on local service delivery arrangements. This paper highlights the importance of organizational capacity in influencing local government decisions to provide services in house in the realm of public safety (e.g., fire, police and emergency medical services). Our empirical study, conducted in Texas, provides evidence that a local government may reduce the risks of contract failure when it produces services in house, especially in the presence of institutionalized evaluation mechanisms. Instead of relying on alternative service providers to acquire, store and move emergency medical supplies and services, local governments are building capacity to better equip themselves to deliver emergency services and plan for disasters.

Institutional Challenges to Municipal Waste Management Service Delivery in South Africa

This paper describes the link between inadequate waste service delivery and institutional arrangement challenges affecting municipal waste management service delivery in South Africa. Using secondary data from Statistics South Africa in relation to literature review, the study finds that there are no distinct ion between responsibilities and powers among levels of government; no clear definition of roles and responsibilities among municipal waste staff; lack of experience among waste staff; the existence of discrepancies between job specification and managerial staffs' qualifications; and the failure to consider parameters peculiar to specific waste location as some of the institutional challenges that resulted in poor waste service delivery in South Africa. This paper recommends a clear and elaborate job descriptions as practiced in the private sector; adequate training on legal provisions of waste management and sanitation rules; the establishment of a professional waste management association; and ensures that waste contractors adhere strictly to the requirements of their contract through effective monitoring.