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Assessing service quality requires information about outcomes and processes. This article focuses on the connection between process and the likelihood of achieving desired outcomes in areas where achieving desired outcomes depends upon the the efforts of service users as well as service providers and government. Where outcomes are co-produced, service providers need to understand what their clients value be prepared to trust their clients' expertise in their own lives. Governments need to remove performance management or funding mechanisms that constrain agency capacity to to assist service users achieve desired outcomes.

As governments move from being both a funder and provider of human services to a purchaser of services in private sector markets or quasi-markets, ensuring that providers do what they are supposed to do becomes more difficult. Agency theory and stewardship theory have been suggested as ways of overcoming this problem. This article argues that both are inadequate, particularly because they conceptualise the relationship as bilateral (government funding department and service provider), ignoring the role of clients in achieving organisational objectives. Co-production that recognises the role played by clients in the production of employment outcomes can provide a more useful way of thinking about relationships among key actors involved in the provision of employment services.

Very few would dispute the proposition that evidence about the effects of different policy options should inform policy decisions. However, there is less agreement on the nature of the evidence needed. In addition, there may be problems in evaluating that

This article explores the major influences on pay-TV policy-making in Australia from the late 1970s, when the issue was first discussed in the context of proposals to establish a domestic communications satellite, up until the introduction of pay-TV in Australia in 1995, thereby placing current developments in the pay-TV industry in context. The article argues that among larger broadcasting and telecommunications issues, pay-TV has never been 'the main game'. For both Coalition and Labor governments, the expansion of existing free-to-air television services in regional Australia and the introduction of competition in telecommunications have been much more important policy priorities than the introduction of pay-TV. Furthermore, because pay-TV policy-making largely took place in this wider policy context, the structure of the broadcasting and telecommunications industries also shaped pay-TV policy outcomes.

This article explores the major influences on pay-TV policy-making in Australia from the late 1970s, when the issue was first discussed in the context of proposals to establish a domestic communications satellite, up until the introduction of pay-TV in Australia in 1995, thereby placing current developments in the pay-TV industry in context. The article argues that among larger broadcasting and telecommunications issues, pay-TV has never been 'the main game'. For both Coalition and Labor governments, the expansion of existing free-to-air television services in regional Australia and the introduction of competition in telecommunications have been much more important policy priorities than the introduction of pay-TV. Furthermore, because pay-TV policy-making largely took place in this wider policy context, the structure of the broadcasting and telecommunications industries also shaped pay-TV policy outcomes.

As governments move from being both a funder and provider of human services to a purchaser of services in private sector markets or quasi-markets, ensuring that providers do what they are supposed to do becomes more difficult. Agency theory and stewardship theory have been suggested as ways of overcoming this problem. This article argues that both are inadequate, particularly because they conceptualise the relationship as bilateral (government funding department and service provider), ignoring the role of clients in achieving organisational objectives. Co-production that recognises the role played by clients in the production of employment outcomes can provide a more useful way of thinking about relationships among key actors involved in the provision of employment services.

Very few would dispute the proposition that evidence about the effects of different policy options should inform policy decisions. However, there is less agreement on the nature of the evidence needed. In addition, there may be problems in evaluating that

As the involvement of third sector organisations in the delivery of publically funded services has increased, so too have debates over the effect of such collaboration on the distinctive value base of third sector organisations on which normative claims of legitimacy rest. This qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with staff from a diverse range of third sector organisations in the north of England and London, asks whether the normative legitimacy of third sector organisations is being compromised by the requirements placed on third sector organisations by external funding agencies. The study finds that third sector agencies are able to protect their normative legitimacy through a range of strategies, the most important of which is a mixed resource base; a strategy that also enables third sector organisations to engage in evolutionary innovation. ; This item was commisioned by Crawford School of Economics and Government, ANU

Over the last twenty years governments have shifted their focus from inputs and processes to outputs and outcomes as a way of ensuring service quality. However the literature on service quality has long recognised that service quality is not solely dependent on outcomes, but also includes the way in which the service is delivered. The values of those designing and implementing social welfare services can have a significant impact on the way in which those services are delivered. This paper reports on research which examined the values underpinning service design and implementation in a range of social welfare programs. Research findings suggest that focusing solely on outputs and outcomes is not the best way to achieve desired outcomes and ensure high quality service. ; This item was commisioned by Crawford School of Economics and Government, ANU

The death of two young men involved in a high speed police pursuit which sparked four nights of "rioting" in Macquarie Fields in Sydney's south-west, raises questions about the adequacy of current policies and programs designed to deal with the complex, multi-faceted problems generated in areas of social disadvantage. Critics of social welfare policies in Australia and in other OECD countries argue that more attention needs to be paid to rising levels of inequality and to the structural causes of poverty and social exclusion: that there needs to be greater recognition of the capabilities of the poor and, in particular, poor people's own sense of problems and solutions, as well as a commitment to empowerment outcomes. This paper argues that development thinking on poverty (as exemplified in the 2000/2001 World Development Report) has the potential to overcome the problems identified in current Australian and EU approaches to poverty and social exclusion.