Government Funding, Employment Conditions, and Work Organization in Non‐profit Community Services: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The article provides a comparative exploration of New Public Management (NPM) funding models on the non‐profit sectors in the UK and Australia, and the implications for services, employment conditions, and worker commitment. A degree of convergence exists around the principles of NPM in the two case studies, creating employment regimes of low pay, casualization, and work intensification. Enhanced vulnerability to pay cuts in the UK, and insecurity in Australia are explained by national differences in exposure to recession, industrial relations institutions, and competition, leading to diminishing worker commitment and raising important concerns for policy‐makers as benefits gained from outsourcing to non‐profits are eroded.

Workforce Policy and Care Quality in English Long-term Elder Care

“…More robust practice here may reap the rewards of better care quality. Yet our findings support the assertion of Cunningham et al (2014) that NPM's emphasis on cost-saving via independent sector commissioning renders unlikely good employment practice across ASC (Rubery et al, 2013). This appears to run counter to workforce policy's aim of improving care quality.…”

“…Indeed, we demonstrate more positive outcomes in the statutory than the independent sector. External service provision does not always achieve the envisaged improvements (Schmid, 2003;Kordasiewicz & Sadura, 2016), and when care is delivered in the independent sector, cost-based commissioning mitigates against good employment practice (Cunningham et al, 2014;Grimshaw et al, 2015) and ultimately care quality. Yet in a policy context in which neoliberal principles are deeply embedded, we do not envisage a move away from NPM, market-based approaches, and a return to the statutory provision of ASC.…”

“…This may result from outsourcing and commissioning practice: the statutory sector retains, to some extent, better employment practice than the independent sector. Here, cost pressures mitigate against adoption of good complementary practice (Cunningham et al, 2014) and prescribed practice may simply become another requirement within a cost-driven system rather than an opportunity to create a high performance workplace (Rubery et al, 2013).…”

“…The dominant logic embraces a business model where commercial practices are presumed to be more cost efficient and deliver better quality services (Schmid, 2003). In England, local authorities purchase over 80% of ASC from the independent sector (Cunningham et al, 2014), which comprises more than 40,000 mainly small, private, and voluntary sector organizations (Eborall et al, 2010). During a long period of austerity and underfunding, however, the commissioning process has been subject to much criticism (Kingsmill, 2014).…”

“…This mirrors arrangements in the United States, where around three quarters of long-term care services are funded by Medicaid and other public sources, though delivered by largely private providers (Nisbet, 2017). Similar policy approaches are evident in other neoliberal regimes, such as Australia (Harley, Allen, & Sargent, 2007), Canada (Cunningham, Baines, & Charlesworth, 2014), and Japan (Broadbent, 2014). However, there is growing recognition of NPM's failure to deliver high quality care, not least given budgetary constraints in austere times (Nisbet, 2017).…”