Operationalizing Co-Production in Public Services Delivery: The contribution of service blueprinting

Abstract

We have argued for public services to move away from product-dominant logic towards a service approach . By taking a services orientation the experience, inter-organisational and systemic nature of public services delivery can be considered along with the role of the service user as a co-producer. In this paper we unpack how co-production can be operationalized through the application of service blueprinting. The paper presents an example within Higher Education where the creation of a blueprint brought together staff and students to focus on the design of student enrolment. Resulting in improved student experience and supporting co-production. KeywordsCo-production, Higher Education, Service Blueprinting, Service Management 2 Operationalizing Co-Production in Public Service Delivery: the Contribution of Service Blueprinting IntroductionIn recent papers we have argued for public services to move away from a product-dominant logic where production and consumption are separated as discrete processes -and thus public services are conceptualized as products to be designed and produced by public policy makers and service professionals and consumed (relatively) passively by service users. Rather we have argued for the need to embrace a (public) services dominant logic that places the service experience at the heart of public services delivery . By taking such an approach to public services the issue of the distinctiveness of the service experience, the often inter-organisational and systemic nature of public services delivery, and the issue of the role of the service user as the shaper, co-producer and evaluator of the service experience can be considered. Whilst co-production has been an aspiration of public management for several decades, only recently have attempts been made to understand and implement this through an application of services management knowledge (XXXX & XXXX 2013).In this paper we aim to unpack a services approach to co-production in public services further by illustrating how it can be operationalized through the application of service blueprinting.In particular, the paper will present a re-analysis of an empirical example within Higher Education from the UK where the creation of a blueprint brought together staff and students to focus on the service design of student enrolment, and with positive impacts upon the quality and performance of this element of the higher education experience. This re-analysis will examine the potential of service blueprinting both as a conceptual tool through which to understand the co-production of public services and as a practice tool through which to map and enhance co-production in the provision of public services. As such the paper is a response to the call by, amongst others, Ferlie et al (2003), Andrews & Boyne (2010) and Head (2010) both to generate substantive public management theory and to make this theory relevant to policy and practice.Paper overview. Co-production is an important debate within public management. It goes to the heart both of effe...

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