The governance of multi-sector public service delivery networks.

The use of market-inspired instruments for steering public service delivery has become ubiquitous across developed economies and yet the experience with contracting for complex services suggests that we are still in the steep portion of the learning curve on how to do this well. Under such approaches there are pervasive risks of wholesale market failure (as seen in the case of Carillion) as well as market malfunctioning, experienced in the repeatedly poor performance of more complex, cross-cutting public service delivery. The primary government response to this outsourcing dilemma acknowledges that large amounts of tax-payers' money will continue to be channelled through private sector and voluntary sector providers and offers recommendations for tightening up market stewardship and contract terms. This return - to what has elsewhere been described as a "byzantine tower of rules and regulations" (Brown et al., 2018, p. 740) - fails to connect with the latest empirical contracting practice from the private sector (as illustrated through emergent 'formal relational contracting' practice) or from smaller local experiments with networked governance arrangements (for example, City Region-level coordination via integration boards with prime 'outcome' contracts (Whitworth & Carter, 2018) and local authorities' use of social impact bonds). This Fellowship seeks to deploy a novel selection of research methods to identify and inform alternative governance and contracting practices that may be deployed to more effectively and efficiently coordinate service provision.

The proposed project aims to investigate alternative commissioning approaches available when there is an ambition to foster collaboration and collective accountability across an interwoven network of provider organisations. The animating research question asks: How can government better steward complex networks of service provision to more holistically and better support citizens with complex lives and who currently interact with a range of public service actors? Crucially, the way the quasi-market and contracts are structured will have important implications for attuning the attentiveness of service providers to the priorities of either the state, service users, or providers themselves. This in turn is expected to have important implications for the quantity, cost, quality, distribution and cohesiveness of services and consequently on the lived experience and 'outcomes' of citizens engaged in social programmes.

This ambitious, discipline-spanning Fellowship proposal seeks to entwine theoretical developments at the interface of public administration, applied economics and social policy, with empirical work facilitated through collaboration with two British central Government departments. Partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Government Inclusive Economy Unit within the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport will elevate research impact and substantively enhance our understanding of the key mechanisms for successful public service contracting and stewardship.

The planned Fellowship brings the opportunity to extend the applicant's already vibrant publication record and emergent scholarly leadership. The host institution - the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford - offers strong and substantive endorsement of the Fellowship. Here Dr Carter and her current team at the Government Outcomes Lab are expected to be vital to the School's future hub of expertise in public service excellence.
Crucially, the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship brings the opportunity for Dr Carter to carve time to further develop an independent academic identity. The duration and explicit emphasis on the development of leadership potential make this Fellowship the ideal scheme for Dr Carter to bolster the intellectual underpinning of this emergent field at the intersection of social policy and public management.

This Fellowship will produce an improved understanding of how government can steward complex networks of public service provision in order to more holistically and better support citizens. The impact of this understanding is improved commissioning; improved frontline services; and better use of limited public resources. The implications are expected to be particularly great for the wellbeing of people who experience multiple and complex social disadvantage and who are persistently under- and inappropriately supported by current service arrangements. The Fellowship's impacts can be divided into four parts, these are 1) at the macro level, to influence senior government decision-makers in order to create governance structures and supportive environments that will enable effective collaborative delivery of public services to tackle complex social needs; 2) at the contracting and organisational/network level, to use evidence of alternative contracting and network management models to minimise duplication and create seamless networks of support wrapped around the needs and aspirations of service users; 3) at the individual level, to enable frontline staff and public managers to connect across organisational boundaries to deliver multi-faceted provision in collaboration with citizen service users in order to achieve better social outcomes; 4) as a springboard for new research: publicly available data, empirical analysis and new theory will provide stimulus to further study on how governments can design and deliver more effective services.

The research will be co-produced with the intended users. This Fellowship offers engaged partnership with the UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Government Inclusive Economy Unit within the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). These Whitehall partners are integral to shaping the contracting environment and to structuring the resource for frontline services. They have co-designed this proposal and are committed to the project. Involvement of these Departments will play a key role in embedding the work in the political context and in reflecting on the applicability of research insights across policy domains.
There are four groups of beneficiaries beyond the academy:
1. Civil Servants in Central Government Spending Departments
This group have responsibility for current outsourcing guidance and the system of support for those developing contracts and networks of service provision. They seek to improve the practice of public service commissioning and the research will support officials to adopt governance structures and supportive environments that enable effective collaborative delivery of public services.
2. Commissioners and officials in local public agencies
These bodies have statutory responsibility to deliver many public services. They are responsible for bringing together and allocating a range of national and local funding streams and act as principal in a range of local delivery contracts. The engaged programme of work will support these officials to explore alternative contracting and network management models to minimise duplication and steward seamless networks of support wrapped around the needs of the user.
3. Organisations in the voluntary, private and public sectors
These organisations are the providers of public services, are party to a range of contractual models and tend to be most familiar with the issues 'on the ground'. The research will support them to be cognisant of contracting options and able to influence complex commissioning practice.
4. Wider influencers of public policy and service delivery including think thanks, the media, front-line staff, users of services and citizens (and their advocacy groups).
Government's approach to tackling complex social problems is a sensitive issue with the public. Engagement activities will aim to shed light on new contractual approaches that respond to these longstanding issues.