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This important book is the first edited collection to provide an up to date and comprehensive overview of the third sector’s role in public service delivery. Exploring areas such as social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value, the authors provide a platform for academic and policy debates on the topic. Drawing on research carried out at the ESRC funded Third Sector Research Centre, the book charts the historical development of the state-third sector relationship, and reviews the major debates and controversies accompanying recent shifts in that relationship. It is a valuable resource for social science academics and postgraduate students as well as policymakers and practitioners in the public and third sectors in fields such as criminal justice, health, housing and social care.
Housing associations are key examples of hybrids that have grown and been re-constituted as ‘delivery agencies’ for publicly funded social and affordable housing over a 25-year period. This long-term process has involved considerable tensions which may be depicted as contests between the state, market and community poles of hybridity. The chapter begins by drawing on theories of enacted hybridity to explore the impacts of this long-term process on the missions, structures and governance of English housing associations. It argues that despite the extensive impact of private borrowing and quasi-market competition and extensive state regulation and commissioning systems, the social and community drivers of housing association identities are still important. The chapter then considers the drivers of diversification into ‘non-housing activities’ particularly those described within the sector as ‘community investment’ activities. The final part of the chapter assesses the impact of these diversification pressures on the hybrid identities of housing associations.
English
Despite a long period of public management reform in social housing, including shifts from state to non-profit providers and exit opportunities for tenants, access to new tenancies has until very recently continued to be mediated by bureaucratic rationing approaches. This article explores the reasons for the long dominance of rationing, and the factors that are now leading to its replacement with more consumerist approaches known as ‘choice-based lettings’. Chaos and complexity theory are used to explore the role of market factors and changes in understanding in destabilising an entrenched initial attractor pattern, and the role of local experiment, policy transfer and new political agendas in establishing a new attractor pattern.
Community-led housing organisations innovate in the resolution of local housing issues by adopting a specialised local focus and emphasising community leadership and engagement. In order to meet their objectives they require access to finance, skills and legitimacy; resources that are often secured through frameworks of intermediary support and external partnerships. This article uses two sector-based case studies of community land trusts (CLTs) and self-help housing to explore the importance and effect of intermediary support in securing access to these resources. These sectors have grown in size and importance in recent years through different forms of intermediation that replicate community-led housing in different locations. The article compares the ‘scaling-up’ of CLTs and the viral spread of self-help housing, highlighting differences in the emphasis that each approach places on community leadership and links with technical experts. We then discuss the implications of this for future housing initiatives and wider relevance for facilitating community-led innovation.
The move of social housing provision away from government to non-profit organisations and towards the market has been accompanied by a discourse of independence from the state. This article questions the validity of this discourse, drawing on hybridisation theory and a Delphi panel study with decision makers in 31 housing associations (HAs) in England to explore recent relations with the state. Despite considerable hybridisation, the state's continued role in defining the operating environment, resource inputs and material position of HAs is demonstrated. Recent policies of deficit reduction and welfare conditionality have challenged independent purposes of HAs. Panel organisations displayed a range of responses to these recent policies, reflecting different organisational values. Three positioning narratives are identified: ‘independent social entrepreneurs’, ‘contractors of the state’ and ‘protectors of public value’. The relationship to the state remains critical to understanding each of these positions and their implications for the future hybridisation of HAs.
The introduction sets out the themes of the book, in particular the recent historical and policy context in the UK. It sets out the book’s overall aim of providing a concise and up-to-date overview of the third sector’s role in England’s public services. It provides a detailed definition of the third sector, introducing some of the main theories of the voluntary sector. It goes on to outline the key policy context, particularly the important New Labour partnership era. It also scrutinizes the important state-sector relationship at the heart of public service delivery. Finally, it highlights the contents of the book.
The conclusion draws together the themes and questions of the book, highlighting the enduring nature of the tensions implicit in the service delivery relationship. It provides a review of where the third sector currently sits in the contemporary landscape of public service delivery, focuses on the dilemmas and tensions that service delivery brings to participating organisations, and highlights the key role of innovation and the search for new models of delivery that the third sector has taken part in. Finally it reviews the prospects for the third sector’s future role in service delivery, balancing reasons to be pessimistic and optimistic.
This edited collection provides a comprehensive overview of the third (or voluntary) sector role in the delivery of public services in the UK. It covers social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value; as well as the sector’s role in specific fields including employment, health and social care, housing and criminal justice. It is the first book to review developments over the New Labour and Coalition period which saw a sustained expansion of the scale and scope of third sector delivery. In this period, the sector was required to respond to new policy challenges such as personalisation, market-based mechanisms of funding allocation and regulation, and an increased focus on rewarding outcomes (payment by results). Drawing on research at the ESRC-funded Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham, the book also makes an analytical contribution in charting historical shifts in state, third sector, and market relationships, with a focus on the controversies associated with such shifts.
This edited collection provides a comprehensive overview of the third (or voluntary) sector role in the delivery of public services in the UK. It covers social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value; as well as the sector’s role in specific fields including employment, health and social care, housing and criminal justice. It is the first book to review developments over the New Labour and Coalition period which saw a sustained expansion of the scale and scope of third sector delivery. In this period, the sector was required to respond to new policy challenges such as personalisation, market-based mechanisms of funding allocation and regulation, and an increased focus on rewarding outcomes (payment by results). Drawing on research at the ESRC-funded Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham, the book also makes an analytical contribution in charting historical shifts in state, third sector, and market relationships, with a focus on the controversies associated with such shifts.
This edited collection provides a comprehensive overview of the third (or voluntary) sector role in the delivery of public services in the UK. It covers social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value; as well as the sector’s role in specific fields including employment, health and social care, housing and criminal justice. It is the first book to review developments over the New Labour and Coalition period which saw a sustained expansion of the scale and scope of third sector delivery. In this period, the sector was required to respond to new policy challenges such as personalisation, market-based mechanisms of funding allocation and regulation, and an increased focus on rewarding outcomes (payment by results). Drawing on research at the ESRC-funded Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham, the book also makes an analytical contribution in charting historical shifts in state, third sector, and market relationships, with a focus on the controversies associated with such shifts.
