Co-production and the non-profit workforce: A comparative study of frontline worker experiences in the US and Scotland

The concept of co-production recognizes the active role service users play in the service delivery process and consequently the importance of service users in achieving outcomes (Bovaird 2007; Brudney and England 1983; Ostrom... [ view full abstract ]

The concept of co-production recognizes the active role service users play in the service delivery process and consequently the importance of service users in achieving outcomes (Bovaird 2007; Brudney and England 1983; Ostrom 1977; Whitaker 1976). Coproduction as a policy approach seeks to augment the role of service users, often by shifting the decision making terrain in service delivery from ‘top down’ expertise to a more genuine and fully-fledged engagement of service users in the service delivery process (Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere 2012). Much of the policy discussion around co-production has focused on its value as an alternative to the perceived weaknesses of its predecessors; that is, bureaucratic and centralized forms of service delivery, but also market models, most visible in New Public Management approaches (Lindsay, et al 2014). At the same time, co-production does not solely emanate from the policy sphere of the failed pasts reforms.  Research in non-profits finds client/service user participation and the shaping of service delivery comes from a range of sources and inspirations (Benjamin and Campbell 2015 ;Benjamin forthcoming; Thompson and Bunderson, 2004; LeRoux 2009; Guo and Saxton 2010).

But how do these efforts to give service users a greater role and greater authority in the service process affect the work and role of the professional staff?  Recognizing that the success of coproduction hinges on the frontline staff, as they work directly with service users, what does coproduction require of frontline staff?  This paper explores this question through a unique data set that includes 180 interviews from frontline staff in 20 nonprofit human service settings from Scotland and the United States.  Nonprofits are an important site for understanding coproduction because they are often the ones delivering social services funded in whole or in part by government, and as research is starting to show, by examining coproduction in nonprofit settings illuminates coproduction in public agencies (see Vamstad 2012).  These data were gathered in two separate studies, one where clients were given greater authority in nonprofit social service settings because of state mandated policies of personalisation and one where clients had greater authority because of the mission and approach of the nonprofit organizations.  A majority of these nonprofits received significant funding from the state, but not all.  This unique data set enables us to identify common management challenges that emerge when clients are given authority in service delivery but also how these management challenges play out differently when this authority is the result of different arrangements, i.e., state policy and funding models vs. organizational social change models. The findings suggest a number of lessons for policymakers and managers interested in coproduction.