Service Delivery Partnerships Research Articles

Partnerships with Technology-Enabled Mobility Companies

The rise and the proliferation of the on-demand economy are creating a new mobility marketplace. This research explored how these new options could be synergistic with public transit models and detailed the experiences of two transit operators that entered into service delivery partnerships with a transportation network company and a micro-transit operator. Based on a series of interviews and the experiences of these two public agencies, this research provides a set of key takeaways and recommendations for transit operators exploring the potential of partnering with new mobility services such as transportation network companies (e.g., Uber or Lyft) and microtransit (e.g., Bridj or Via).

Operationalizing Sustainable Recreation across the National Forest System: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Six Regional Strategies

Sustainability, as an institutional and professional goal has gained momentum in the parks and recreation field over the past two decades. The scholarly literature has been dominated by articles contributing science-based management frameworks to inform agency decisions about sustainability. Needed also are action-oriented, case study research or evaluation studies where the objective is to inductively generate grounded theory and best management practices by studying the phenomena in action. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the USDA Forest Services’ institutional goal of operationalizing Sustainable Recreation across the National Forest System. This study goal is informed by a literature synthesis of research focused on sustainable science, sustainability constraints, and institutional change and transformation as well as background on the Forest Services’ Framework for Sustainable Recreation. The objectives of this research study were to develop a deeper understanding of the contextual factors, vision and goals, action steps, and performance measures associated with the Forest Services’ operationalizing of their national Framework for Sustainable Recreation. Given the action-oriented and applied focus agenda of this research, the research study employed a conventional, qualitative content analysis methodology to analyze six Regional Sustainable Recreation Strategies. Results from this qualitative content analysis provide an empirical window into how the USDA Forest Service is mobilizing to integrate sustainability into their managed recreation operations. Study results elaborate two contrasting visions for managed recreation in the Forest Service—one a more limited vision of operating within agency budgetary limits and the other a more expansive vision of investing in the managed recreation program. The regional Sustainable Recreation Strategies studied here also varied considerably in the level of specificity directed towards the forest-level operationalizing of sustainable recreation objectives and priority action steps. Study results also suggest that operationalizing sustainable recreation across the National Forest System will result in new types of recreation service delivery partnerships with external stakeholder groups to leverage scarce public dollars and to improve the level of service. Finally, there was little mention in the Framework for Sustainable Recreation or the six regional strategies analyzed here for the contribution of management-science partnerships. Regional or national forums are needed that convene managers and scientists to develop an action-oriented science agenda for operationalizing sustainable recreation across the National Forest System. These same collaborative forums could benefit managers of other public recreation lands and the parks and recreation field collectively. Subscribe to JPRA

Strengthening state/non-state service delivery partnerships in the health sector in Nepal.

State/non-state partnerships in the health sector are of crucial importance in Nepal where partnerships between the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) and external actors have been fundamental to Nepal making progress in meeting millennium development goals. However, partnerships need to be strengthened.To gather information about partnerships we searched MoHP partnership evaluations as well as PubMed Central, EBSCOhost, OVIDSP, PROQUEST, Science Direct, and MedLine. We found 11 MoHP documents and 167 papers about state/non-state partnerships. Using the inclusion criteria we examined three MoHP policy documents/evaluations and 16 papers to extract information about partners, partnership health area focus, partner contributions, partnership outcomes, and partnership functioning themes. Themes about partnership functioning include the need to strengthen clarity of roles and responsibilities, strengthen leadership, as well as to ensure integration of partnership achievements systemically within the health sector.There were limitations in this review. In the academic literature there were no studies where the state/non-state partnership itself was evaluated. The focus was on the health outcomes and the partnership processes and functioning received little attention. To improve partnerships there is a serious need for research that evaluates the effectiveness of the partnership and the relationships between the partnership and the health outcomes achieved.

The Governance of Mandated Partnerships: The Case of Social Housing Procurement

Partnership working is nowadays a seemingly ubiquitous aspect of the management and delivery of public services, yet there remain major differences of opinion about how they best work for the different stakeholders they involve. The balances between mandate and trust, and between hard and soft power, are crucial to current debates about public service partnerships. This paper explores the example of social housing procurement in Northern Ireland, and the requirement to form mandated procurement groups. The research shows that the exercise of hierarchical power is still important in network governance; that mandated partnerships alter the balance between trust and power in partnership working, but the impact is uneven; and that these relationships are (re)shaping the ‘hybrid’ identity of housing associations. The balance between accountability for public resources and the independence of third sector organisations is the key tension in mandated partnerships. The Northern Ireland experience suggests that trust-based networks could provide more productive working relationships in partnerships for service delivery.

Building Service Delivery Networks: Partnership Evolution Among Children's Behavioral Health Agencies in Response to New Funding.

Meeting the complex needs of youth with behavioral health problems requires a coordinated network of community-based agencies. Although fiscal scarcity or retrenchment can limit coordinated services, munificence can stimulate service delivery partnerships as agencies expand programs, hire staff, and spend more time coordinating services. This study examines the 2-year evolution of referral and staff expertise sharing networks in response to substantial new funding for services within a regional network of children's mental health organizations. Quantitative network survey data were collected from directors of 22 nonprofit organizations that receive funding from a county government-based behavioral health service fund. Both referral and staff expertise sharing networks changed over time, but results of a stochastic actor-oriented model of network dynamics suggest the nature of this change varies for these networks. Agencies with higher numbers of referral and staff expertise sharing partners tend to maintain these ties and/or develop new relationships over the 2 years. Agencies tend to refer to agencies they trust, but trust was not associated with staff expertise sharing ties. However, agencies maintain or form staff expertise sharing ties with referral partners, or with organizations that provide similar services. In addition, agencies tend to reciprocate staff expertise sharing, but not referrals. Findings suggest that during periods of resource munificence and service expansion, behavioral health organizations build service delivery partnerships in complex ways that build upon prior collaborative history and coordinate services among similar types of providers. Referral partnerships can pave the way for future information sharing relationships.

When Business Meets Aid: Analysing Public-Private Partnerships for International Development

International development agencies are increasingly looking to business as a partner in achieving development outcomes. Engaging business in development has become a central plank of many countries’ aid policies. However, the potential of public-private partnerships for development is still largely unrealised. Business and development agencies would benefit from a better understanding of what forms of practical partnership might be constructed, for what purposes and with what likely impact. We propose a new framework for thinking about practical engagement between business and development agencies. It is based, in the first instance, on a distinction between partnerships that increase the development impact of core business activity, and those that contribute to the private provision of public goods. Within this framework we discuss development agencies’ existing involvement in inclusive business ventures, pro-poor supply chain initiatives for internationally-traded products, public-private partnerships for service delivery, and product development partnerships in health. In each of these four areas we provide short case studies and identify a set of issues for further consideration in future work. We close with some observations on cross-cutting issues, including the slenderness of the evidence base in this field, and the fragmentation of existing initiatives. Our main conclusions are three. First, the next generation of enterprise challenge funds should be designed on the basis of a broad evaluation of their predecessors and explicit consideration of a set of issues that we identify. Second, more effective brokerage arrangements, and some flagships, will be needed in order to expand public-private partnerships for service delivery. Third, a comprehensive review of product development partnerships should be undertaken which, among other things, compares them to market-based alternatives.

A seamless partnership? Developing mixed economy interventions in a non-custodial project for women

The movement towards localism, partnerships and governing ‘networks’ has renewed academic interest in the voluntary sector role in multi-agency work in criminal justice fields. This article argues that strategic partnerships which service systems for managing offenders are organizing into more complex formations which are poised to alter academic understanding of power relationships and roles among partners. Using Adelbart Evers’ (2005) concept of ‘hybridization’, the complexity of service delivery partnerships and the varying interchanges among participating agencies is discussed. The analysis focuses on the start-up and first year of operation of the ‘Chestnut Centre’, a community-based project for diverting women from custody based in a city in the midlands of England. The results are presented as a case study of participants’ reflections on power and legitimacy in the partnership; experiences of collaborative working; approaches towards service users; and perceptions of multi-agency partnerships.

Public–private partnerships: Perspectives on purposes, publicness, and good governance

AbstractPublic–private partnerships (PPPs) have long been advocated and analyzed as organizational solutions to pressing societal problems that call for the comparative advantages of government, business, and civil society. However, ongoing questions remain about how to design, manage, and assess PPPs. The large literature on PPPs suffers from conceptual imprecision, and is weakly integrated. This article seeks to address these problems. It offers a discussion of partnership definitions and builds a framework that examines the features of PPPs as they relate to achieving particular purposes: policy, service delivery, infrastructure, capacity building, and economic development. The article summarizes the contributions to the symposium: social enterprise PPPs that target poverty reduction, health service delivery partnerships with faith‐based organizations, diasporas as partners for international development, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and the Better Factories Cambodia partnership. In examining cross‐cutting themes, the analysis focuses on publicness and potential to promote international norms associated with good governance. Conclusions address the role of new partners in PPPs, the difficulties in finding a balance of interests and incentives among partners, the implications of embodying and promoting international good governance norms and values, the different sources of authority that operate within PPPs, and the trade‐offs among PPPs' advantages. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Why Not Partner With Local Government?

Service delivery partnerships with local government offer both opportunities and challenges for nonprofit agencies, but the normative and institutionalist tendencies of the collaboration literature tend to downplay the rationales for avoiding partnerships and the influence of managerial characteristics on the decision to collaborate. Nonprofit executive directors across the state of Georgia were asked about factors that might inhibit them from collaborating with local government agencies. Principal components analysis created four dependent variables from these answers, which were regressed on various respondent, organizational, and community characteristics. The resulting analysis finds that managerial attitudes about collaboration are not monolithic: They reflect underlying political and social dynamics that should be understood as distinct constructs, linked to experience and personal background. The findings suggest that future research should specify the exact nature of collaborative barriers, examine the individual backgrounds of those charged with collaborative responsibility, and integrate theories of organizational and human behavior.

Beyond the Contract: The Scope and Nature of Informal Government–Nonprofit Partnerships

Privatization research lacks an understanding of the scope and nature of informal service delivery relationships between nonprofits and local government. This article reports on a study of local service delivery partnerships in Georgia using survey and interview data. In addition to assessing the frequency of noncontractual partnerships, this study builds on B. Guy Peters’s definition of public–private partnerships to delineate the control–formality dimensions of these partnerships more clearly. The agency theory notion that a trade‐off occurs between formality and control is also tested. The findings show that most public–private partnerships involving nonprofits are led by government agencies, and they are only weakly collaborative in the sense of shared authority or resources. Often, community norms substitute for formal service agreements. The study concludes with suggestions for further research regarding trust and behavioral norms in public–private partnerships.

Introducing Role and Service Changes in Health and Social Care: The Impact and Influence of User Involvement in England and Wales

A key characteristic of the English and Welsh system of care provision is that the supply function is divided between two types of organisation: the National Health Service (NHS) and local authorities. These inter-organisational and the related inter-professional divides have long been recognised as problematic from a user and carer viewpoint; and various policy changes have attempted to address them. This paper draws on three different research projects to describe practical experiences of user and carer involvement in this context (a) the Evaluation of the 1999 Health Act Section 31 flexibilities encouraging more effective service delivery partnerships between the NHS and local authorities in England; (b) a Baseline Study of Partnership Working and Flexibilities Use in Wales; and (c) the Evaluation of the NHS Changing Workforce Programme, which implemented new ways of working to improve patient care across health and social care in England. In synthesising the studies' findings, the paper also begins to explore relationships between involvement effectiveness and different types of NHS–local authority partnership as they seek to introduce change and deliver more effective services.

Information, Cooperation and Trust in Strategic Service Delivery Partnerships

Strategic service-delivery partnerships (SSPs) are a new method of contracting for the delivery of local government services. They are rapidly becoming an important feature of local government in Britain. Negotiating and operating such partnerships successfully is a difficult challenge. They require the development and maintenance of a strongly cooperative relationship between the local authority and the strategic partner. This does not always work and there are examples where SSPs have been terminated. This article analyses SSPs in a transactions cost framework and identifies the contracting problems that can work against the success of SSPs and possible solutions to these problems provided by the development of trust. The likelihood of cooperation being based on trust can be signalled by the gifts both sides make during the procurement process in the form of negotiations, factfinding and preparation of the bid. However, procurement regulations may work to discourage a local authority from attaching a sufficiently high weighting to a factor as intangible as trust in the procurement decision.

Public‐Private Partnerships for Service Delivery

This article reports on the performance of services contracted out by the public sector to private sector organisations. The conclusions are based on probably the biggest‐ever questionnaire survey on this topic to‐date: it covered 7,500 public‐private partnerships, and was replicated annually over three years. The private sector organisations providing the services included multinationals like IBM and Andersen Consulting as well as local firms. The public sector “clients” were all from three Australian states or the Australian federal government. The study not only shows that these partnerships are set to go on expanding fast, but also explores the ways in which they have been successful and the pitfalls which the partners need to avoid.

Forging Effective Interagency Partnerships for Service Delivery to Students with Behavioral Disorders

We encourage our readers to submit ideas, suggestions, or manuscripts for Spotlight. This feature of Intervention focuses on a specific school program, clinic, camp, or individual concerned with special and remedial education. We would be pleased to assist our readers in developing an article for this column.—GW