Third sector organisations in co-production processes: are they really representing the needs of service users? Towards a typology of Third Sector/users relations

While co-production remains a broad and contested concept (Ewert and Evers, 2012; Verschuere et al., 2012), the involvement of the ‘third sector’ in co-production processes (Boyle and Harris, 2008; Bovaird, 2007; Löffler,... [ view full abstract ]

While co-production remains a broad and contested concept (Ewert and Evers, 2012; Verschuere et al., 2012), the involvement of the ‘third sector’ in co-production processes (Boyle and Harris, 2008; Bovaird, 2007; Löffler, 2009; Needham and Carr, 2012; Pestoff et al. 2006) is a key feature of various conceptualisations. From the perspective of government, non-public partners “are expected to enrich the repertoire of public management and to provide relief to an ever more disarmed welfare state” (Bode and Brandsen, 2014 pp. 1056). Involving the third sector is assumed to bring a range of advantages including enhancing, facilitating and promoting greater citizen participation in the determination, provision, and governance of public services, while simultaneously delivering cost reductions and better outcomes (Macmillan 2010; Pestoff, 2012; Bovaird, 2012). Such a formula, however, rests upon a number of assumptions that have rarely been subjected to critical challenge. 

This paper particularly focuses on an assumption that third sector organisations are closer to their service users and constituent communities, implying that involving the third sector in coproduction is a short cut to engaging with communities. We aim to understand if and how third sector organisations engaged in co-production processes really represent the needs of service users, and the extent to which they actually engage citizens and/or beneficiaries. Through our analysis of six different co-production projects funded by the Scottish Government with the objective to redesign or implement new public services and involve service users, we present a typology, based upon our analysis, of how third sector organisations involved in co-production processes engage with their stakeholder groups. We undertook 41 in-depth face-to-face interviews and four focus groups with third sector representatives, public sector organisations, service users and grant funders. 

Our emerging findings suggest a variety of ways in which third sector organisations engage with stakeholder groups, with levels of engagement ranging from barely involving citizens in workshops and events, through to fully and actively engaging them in service design and delivery. This variation of experiences suggests that one of the key rationales for involving third sector organisations in co-production – that they (all) represent the communities they serve – is based on shaky foundations. Furthermore, we identify a need to explore whether engaging in coproduction initiatives can potentially distance third sector organisations from their core constituent groups. The policy and practical implications of our research will also be presented and discussed.