Governance and competition: The role of non-profit organisations in the delivery of public services

The movement away from a unified public service towards the development of quasi-markets based on the involvement of private firms and non-profit organisations can be viewed as the most radical change to state - society relations since the advent of the modern welfare state. While there is a growing literature on the value this contracting regime has for governments, we know almost nothing about its impact upon the service delivery styles and mission of non-profit agencies. This study used focus groups and survey data from agencies involved in the Australian Job Network and its predecessor Working Nation. The results show that this contracting regime produced a convergence of service delivery strategies among different types of agency, higher caseloads, reduced attention to the needs of individual job-seekers and greater 'creaming' of the easiest clients at the expense of those more disadvantaged.