The role of mutuals in public service innovation

在过去的五年中，增加互助组织的参与和员工对公共服务提供的所有权的议程已经成为越来越重要的政策，但对于当前的联合政府来说，这一点越来越重要，这提高了人们对互助组织作为创新和提高生产力的组织工具的潜力的期望。本研究旨在提供一个严谨的证据基础，关于分拆互助（即员工所有）组织形式在促进英国公共服务创新中的作用。它通过检查所涉及的创新类型及其在用户和其他利益相关者眼中的有效性来做到这一点。该研究将回答有关公共部门交付创新的一个关键问题，重点关注当前联合政府进一步发展这一议程的努力。有必要更仔细地审查分拆互助组织在多大程度上能够在公共服务提供方面释放企业家精神、创造力和创新，并确定创新的关键促进因素和障碍是什么。还需要评估举措对不同利益相关者的感知影响，认识到创新涉及风险，可能涉及意想不到的负面影响，以及收益。因此，本研究旨在为政策制定者和其他人提供高质量的证据基础。这项研究将侧重于保健和社会保健方面的互助组织形式，将最近的经验与在休闲服务方面成立较久的互助组织的经验进行比较。调查结果将有助于了解雇员和用户参与在采用创新方法满足服务需要方面的作用以及当地情况和外部支助提供者的作用。方法包括：1。对文献进行系统回顾：从公共部门、共同化和员工所有的组织形式以及服务/社会创新的相关文献中建立跨学科的理解和见解。2. 雇员所有制企业部门的映射：对涉及公共服务提供的互助、合作社和其他第三部门组织的现有数据集进行系统分析。将从现有数据库产生一组新的数据，这些数据将用于确定实地研究的关键部门和组织样本。与主要利益攸关方的访谈：在国家一级，包括不同区域和部门的主要政策行为者、专员、工会等。4. 与互助组织进行调查：将选择30个保健和社会护理以及休闲服务方面的互助组织，以代表一系列的组织类型和活动。对于每个机构，将与高级和其他工作人员、支持提供者、用户/受益人、专员、工会和其他主要利益相关者进行访谈。通过在项目准备期间与所有利益攸关方协商，以及组建由经验丰富的研究人员、政策思考者和支持提供者组成的研究小组，知识交流已嵌入到项目的设计中。该研究旨在对实践和政策以及对创新公共服务提供过程的学术理解产生直接影响。

The agenda to increase the involvement of mutual organisations and employee ownership in public service delivery has been of growing policy importance over the past five years but increasingly so for the current Coalition Government, which has raised expectations of the potential of mutuals as organisational vehicles for innovation and improved productivity. This study aims to provide a rigorous evidence base concerning the role of spin-out mutual (i.e. employee owned) organisational forms in promoting innovation in public services in the UK. It does this by examining the types of innovations involved and their effectiveness as perceived by users and other stakeholders. The study will answer a key question regarding innovation in public sector delivery, focusing on efforts to further develop this agenda by the current Coalition Government. There is a need for closer examination of the extent to which spin out mutuals are able to unleash entrepreneurialism, creativity and innovation in public service delivery, and to identify what are the crucial facilitating factors and barriers to innovations. There is also a need to assess the perceived impact of initiatives on different stakeholders, recognising that innovation involves risk and may involve unintended negative impacts, as well as gainsThis study is therefore aimed at providing a high quality evidence base for policy makers and others. The research will focus on mutual organisational forms in health and social care, comparing recent experience with those of longer established mutuals in leisure services. The findings will contribute new knowledge on the role of employee and user involvement in introducing innovative approaches to meeting service needs and the role of local contexts and external support providers. The methods will involve: 1. A systematic review of the literature: to build on interdisciplinary understanding and insights from relevant literatures on the public sector, mutualisation and employee-owned organisational forms, and service/social innovation. 2. Mapping of the employee owned-enterprise sector: a systematic analysis of existing data sets on mutuals, co-operatives and other third sector organisations involved in public service delivery. A new data set will be generated from existing databases which will serve to identify the key sectors and sample of organisations for the field research.3. Interviews with key stakeholders: at national level, including key policy actors, commissioners, trade unions etc in different regions and sectors. 4. Surveys with mutual organisations: 30 mutuals in health and social care and in leisure services will be selected to represent a range of organisational types and activities. For each organisation, interviews will be conducted with senior and other staff members, support providers, users/beneficiaries, commissioners, unions and other key stakeholders.Knowledge exchange has been embedded in the design of the project through consultation with all stakeholders during its preparation, and the assembly of a research team that combines experienced researchers, policy thinkers and support providers. The research is designed to have a direct impact on practice and policy as well as academic understanding of the processes of innovation public service delivery.