Assessing the effect of co-production on outcomes, service quality and efficiency
This chapter develops a conceptual model which allows the impacts of co-production to be identified. It then summarises the current state of evidence on how co-production policies, projects and initiatives have performed, including now they brought about improvements to outcomes, service quality, efficiency, social capital and governance principles. The chapter notes that, while the evidence is still sparse, it suggests that the potential of co-production is sufficient to justify wider experimentation in public policy and practice and deeper research into the mechanisms causing the impacts across that wide range of variables. The chapter explores in some detail how co-production can help to achieve different kinds of benefits and costs to public service organisations and communities. In particular, it examines a range of different ways in which professionals and citizens can make better use of each other's assets, resources and contributions to achieve better outcomes or improved efficiency . The highlights the need to explore the separate impacts of co-commissioning, co-design, co-delivery and co-assessment of services and of public outcomes and also provides a framework for exploring the main costs which co-production can involve for public service organisations, for service users and for communities.
Cite as: Loeffler, E. and Bovaird, T. (2018), Assessing the effect of co-production on outcomes, service quality and efficiency, in: Taco Brandsen, Trui Steen and Bram Verschuere (eds.), Co-production and co-creation: Engaging citizens in public services. New York and Abingdon: Routledge: 269–280.