Social impact bonds are payment by results contracts that leverage private social investment
to cover the up-front expenditure associated with welfare services. The introduction of …

Background Weaknesses in the provision of mental health crisis support are evident and
improvements that include voluntary sector provision are promoted. There is a lack of …

Over the past decades, social enterprises have been acknowledged as key welfare actors in
several EU countries. In spite of the dramatic research devoted to exploring them, several …

Engaging public service users as co-producers is expected to lead to more efficient services
and better outcomes. What has been missing so far, however, is a solid theoretical basis to …

This paper examines the challenges posed to third sector organizations by major external
crises that from time to time beset national and global communities. In so doing, it unpacks …

This paper contributes to theorizing and analysing different processes of co-production and
value co-creation within outcome-based contracting (OBC). It investigates how different OBC …

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, policy-making in post-industrial nations has been
widely characterised in terms of austerity. Yet this provides an insufficient basis for an …

The growing complexity of collective problems and social needs, aligned with pressures for
cheaper and better public services, have induced efforts at policy reform in many developed …

The centrality of the third sector in the co-production of public services is seemingly based
on the assumption that it can act as an effective proxy for service users. However, the third …

This article uses the Integrated Family Services Centres (IFSCs) as an example to illustrate
the contractual relationship between the state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) …