In response to political reforms of the 1980s onwards – which aimed to unleash innovation through competition and market forces, public management theories, and by questioning this logic – there have been increasingly developed alternative approaches towards service delivery. These approaches have conceptualised and advocated various types of collaborative governance.
This policy briefing explores how transformative innovation of public services and public policies emerges from the intersection of ideas from scientific research, organisational learning, and collaboration between public, private, and third sector organisations and citizens, and other stakeholders. Based on a collaborative governance typology, it elaborates how collaboration between these different types of organisations can lead to major innovations. Such innovations sustainably improve the quality of life of service users and other citizens, and improve efficiency at a time of financial pressures on the public sector. By drawing on selected examples of the European Public Sector Award (EPSA) 2023–24, it highlights the benefits of co-production between public service organisations and citizens.
To support effective collaboration between organisations, an enabling ecosystem is required at a range of levels, including policies and standards that support multistakeholder inclusion and cooperation. The key factors in such an enabling ecosystem include:
- an enabling policy environment, supportive of collaboration and not over-committed to competition
between service providers; - a partnership platform bringing different actors across sectors together that fosters systematically
catalysing collaborative actions; - selecting organisations that are fit for and committed to sharing and partnering;
- ensuring sufficient resources and capacities of public organisations to make collaboration effective;
- working with public stakeholders and individuals with partnership knowledge and skills;
- design of partnerships that are built to good practice standards and deliver outcomes with an impact
on the quality of life of priority stakeholders; - acknowledging and embracing the potential risks of collaboration, taking into account the political
sensitivities and public scrutiny; - providing arrangements for transparency and joint decision-making to render such risks more
acceptable to service users and communities
Learn more about all EPSA 2023-24 projects here.