Commodification and healthcare in the third sector in England: from gift to commodity—and back?

Rod Sheaff; Angela Ellis Paine; Mark Exworthy; Rebecca  Hardwick; Christopher Smith

doi:10.1080/09540962.2023.2244350

Commodification and healthcare in the third sector in England: from gift to commodity—and back?

Rod Sheaff^*, Angela Ellis Paine, Mark Exworthy, Rebecca Hardwick, Christopher Smith

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

When publicly-funded services are outsourced, governments still use multiple governance structures to retain some control over the services provided. Using realist methods the authors systematically compared this aspect of community health activities provided by third sector organizations in six English localities during 2020–2022. Two modes of commissioning coexisted. Commodified commissioning largely embodied Washington consensus models of formal, competitive procurement. A contrasting, collaborative mode of commissioning relied more upon relational, long-term co-operation and networking among organizations. When the two modes conflicted, commissioners often favoured the collaborative mode and sought to adjust their commissioning to make it less commodified.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	298-307
Number of pages	10
Journal	Public Money & Management
Volume	44
Issue number	4
Early online date	15 Aug 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2023.2244350
Publication status	Published - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments:
The research on which this article is based was funded by the NIHR Health Services Delivery Research programme, grant NIHR 128107. The views and opinions expressed above are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the Health Services and Delivery Research Programme, NIHR, NHS or the UK Department of Health.

Keywords

Commissioning
commodification
England
inter-organization collaboration
networks
outsourcing
third sector
Washington consensus

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Cite this

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title = "Commodification and healthcare in the third sector in England: from gift to commodity—and back?",

abstract = "When publicly-funded services are outsourced, governments still use multiple governance structures to retain some control over the services provided. Using realist methods the authors systematically compared this aspect of community health activities provided by third sector organizations in six English localities during 2020–2022. Two modes of commissioning coexisted. Commodified commissioning largely embodied Washington consensus models of formal, competitive procurement. A contrasting, collaborative mode of commissioning relied more upon relational, long-term co-operation and networking among organizations. When the two modes conflicted, commissioners often favoured the collaborative mode and sought to adjust their commissioning to make it less commodified.",

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Commodification and healthcare in the third sector in England: from gift to commodity—and back?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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