Big Business in a Thin Market: Understanding the Privatization of Residential Care for Children and Youth in Sweden (original) (raw)
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Childcare for Sale: Mapping Private Institutions in Sweden 1900–1975
Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 2021
Private providers and commercial profit are features of today's Swedish welfare society, but the market was already an arena for the production, distribution and consumption of such services by the early twentieth century. One of the private-sector institutions offering well-to-do parents residential care for their children during restricted periods was the so called Barnpensionat (Eng.: Children's boarding house). Since these institutions are not previously studied, the extent and organization of such establishmentss are unknown. Through analyses of digitalized newspaper material, including advertisements, this article maps the existence and function of barnpensionat in Sweden during the period 1900-1975. 2015, when many unaccompanied refugee minors arrived in Sweden. These institutions have been of temporary character and many of them are closing at the moment.
Experiences with the privatization of home care: evidence from Denmark
Nordic Journal of Social Research, 2011
Processes of privatization in home care for the elderly in Denmark have primarily taken the form of outsourcing public-care provisions. The content and quality of services have in principle remained the same, but the providers of services have changed. The welfare state has continued to bear the major responsibility for the provision of elderly care, while outsourcing has allowed clients to choose between public and private providers of care. The major aim of outsourcing has been to empower the frail elderly by providing them with exit-opportunities through a construction of this group as consumers of welfare-state provisions. The central government in Denmark has produced the public-service reform, but the municipalities bear the administrative and financial responsibility for care for the elderly. Further, national policymakers have decided that local authorities (municipalities) must provide to individuals requiring care the opportunities to choose. With this background in mind, this article analyses how national, top-down ideas and the 'politics of choice' have created tensions locally in the form of municipal resistance and blockages. The article draws on case studies in two Danish municipalities, whereby central politicians and administrative leaders have been interviewed. We have identified four areas of tensions: 1) those between liberal and libertarian ideas and values versus local political orientations and practices; 2) new tensions and lines of demarcation among political actors, where old political conflicts no longer holds; 3) tensions between promises and actual delivery, due to insufficient control of private contractors; and 4) those between market principles and the professional ethics of care providers.
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Journal of European Social Policy, 2012
The use of markets and market mechanisms to deliver care services is growing in both liberal and social democratic welfare states. This article examines debates and policies concerning the marketisation of eldercare and childcare in Sweden, England and Australia. It shows how market discourses and practices intersect with, reinforce or challenge traditions and existing policies and examines whether care markets deliver user empowerment and greater efficiency. Markets for eldercare and childcare have developed in uneven and context specific ways with varying consequences. Both politics and policy history help to shape market outcomes.
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During the s, the Swedish welfare state was declared by some to be in a "crisis", due to both financial strain and loss of political support. Others have argued that the spending cuts and reforms undertaken during this period did slow down the previous increase in social spending, but left the system basically intact. The main argument put forward in this article is that the Swedish welfare state has been and is still undergoing a transforming process whereby it risks losing one of its main characteristics, namely the belief in and institutional support for social egalitarianism. During the s, the public welfare service sector opened up to competing private actors. As a result, the share of private provision grew, both within the health-care and primary education systems as well as within social service provision. This resulted in a socially segregating dynamic, prompted by the introduction of "consumer choice". As will be shown in the article, the gradual privatization and market-orientation of the welfare services undermine previous Swedish notions of a "people's home", where uniform, high-quality services are provided by the state to all citizens, regardless of income, social background or cultural orientation.
Privatising The Swedish Welfare State
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The introduction of private competition and choice in the Swedish welfare sector has attracted widespread attention in recent years. This paper sets out the factors that helped make this development possible, and explains why the influence of the organisational theory of New Public Management (NPM) has ensured that while market economy elements have increased in welfare services, the scope of the state and the public sector has continued to grow. The result is the emergence of welfare quasi-markets, which are increasingly subject to input-related regulation and control.
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2006
This book is the result of a research effort that has been going on between 2001 and 2004. During this time we have made up the Swedish team in a European research project financed by the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Community. The project-known under its acronym TSFEPShas been studiously led by Bernard Eme and coordinated by Laurent Fraisse at CRIDA research institute in Paris, and has also engaged research teams from France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Great Britain and Bulgaria. We are, first, deeply indebted to our European colleagues for the invaluable intellectual support and insights they have provided and shared with us at numerous regular and irregular TSFEPS meetings. Second, we are grateful to Joachim Andersson, Nina Seger and Johan Vamstad, who have all been instrumental in getting parts of the empirical work in our two case cities done. We also extend our gratitude third, to a number of colleagues at the departments of political science at Södertörn University College and Mid-Sweden University for providing us with inspiring academic contexts for the work, as well as to one anonymous manuscript reviewer from SOFI research institute at Stockholm University. Lastly, we extend our gratitude to Erland Jansson and Magnus Sandgren at Södertörn University College, for their patience and expertise in preparing the manuscript. Our hope at this final stage of the research process is that the text will be of value for students of the Swedish welfare system in terms of its approach to l'acceuil de petite enfance-as the title of the European project words it.
The outsourcing of public services in Norwegian child and youth welfare: a case study
The restructuring of the relationship between government and providers of child and youth services characterized the 1980s and the 1990s in many countries. Although this re-structuring has had several independent rationales in Scandinavian countries, we will argue that they overall have promoted the achievement of New Public Management. This includes such efforts as the outsourcing of public services in a welfare state setting. This paper presents some major issues and findings concerning the application of NPM in the Scandinavian context, especially at the local level. The analysis draws upon data about the adaptation by an independent institution for the mentally disabled to new requirements regarding diversification of principals, competitiveness, quality assurance, and new definitions of customer satisfaction.
2013
The privatization of elderly care system occurred in response to an economical crisis as well as political decisions made in the early 1990's. Since the economic crisis was supposed to have a negative impact on quality of elderly care services, the government adopted different policies such as New Public Management strategies, the introduction of a unit price for all care services, and the law implementing-Freedom of Choice‖ to increase the quality of these elderly care services. In this study, I am going to explain how these policies have been effected on quality of both public and private home care services, as well as compare the organizational and technical differences between public and private home care companies in providing elderly care services. For this purpose, I compared the care provision of three public home care companies with six of private ones in Stockholm, to see how they are different in terms of the quality of their services. Based on my findings, the quality of home care services is higher in private home care companies than in the public ones. One of the reasons for this is the more efficient usage of New Public Management strategies in the private sector. Another factor is the lower hierarchical level in provision of care private sector-this accelerates solving the problems and provision of elderly care services in private home care companies. However the public sector doesn't have the two given advantages of private sector, still there is not a huge quality difference between public and private sector in provision of home care services.
Governing Welfare : the third sector and the challenges to the Swedish Welfare State
2007
The overall issue addressed in this thesis is the challanges to the Swedish welfare state. This topic has been the subject of several different interpretations in the academic as well as political debate in Sweden over the last decade. The first of two questions raised in this thesis is therefore what the main challenges to the Swedish welfare state are. It is concluded that the main challenges are the challanges to the representative democracy that originate in measures to meet the economic challenges to the Swedish welfare state by making it more efficient and rational. The main challenges to the Swedish welfare state are, therefore, a mix of interrelated economic and democratic challenges. A specific factor is tested for its possible impact on these challenges and that factor is third sector provision of welfare services. The second of the two research questions is therefore in what way and to what extent the third sector can influence how the identified challenges affect the welfare state. Childcare is selected as an example of a welfare service where there are a considerable proportion of third sector providers, primarily parent and worker cooperatives. The diversity, level of participation and service quality of different types of childcare is analysed with regard to how they affect the here presented challenges to the welfare state. It is concluded from this analysis that there are democratic benefits in the third sector provision of childcare that can act complementary to the challenged representative democracy. It is also concluded, however, that not all Swedish childcare can be provided by the third sector and that its democratic benefits therefore also should be produced by other types of childcare by imitating the third sectors active participation, small scale and independence. This study shows that Sweden is rapidly moving towards a greater diversity in its delivery of welfare service and that there are no policies or institutions for facilitating a more diverse service provision. An additional conclusion is for this reason that the outcome of the economic and democratic challenges varies with the direction of this diversification, which tells us that such policies and institutions are desirable. The Swedish welfare state will be getting a more diverse provision of welfare services regardless if there is any readiness for it or not and the results from this thesis show that the third sector is the non-public type of welfare provider that best facilitate the values and morals of the welfare state.
‘Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind’: Assessing The Impact Of Markets For Children’s Residential Care
Public Administration, 2001
This article is concerned with assessing the effectiveness of markets for complex professional services in social care. The issue is explored through an account of developments in the children's residential care sector. Over the past five years there has been a steady expansion in the role of external markets in this area. However, this was not required by the Children Act 1989 and has become the subject of considerable debate between policy makers and practitioners. While some favour an extension of choice, others argue that a further decline in local authority run provision will be both costly and detrimental in terms of meeting key policy goals. In order to assess these claims, reference is made to the findings of a study of purchasing practices for children's residential care in twelve local authorities in England and Wales. The impact of the emerging market is analysed along two dimensions. Firstly, we assess how far it is operating efficiently, concentrating on market structure, information and transaction costs. Secondly, attention is given to the impact of market changes on the policy objectives of: localized placements; ensuring adequate safeguards; and matching needs and services. The results reveal that there have been significant costs associated with markets in children's services. In a context of government efforts to promote modes of service delivery on the basis of 'what works', these difficulties have certain implications. Not only do they draw attention to the need for greater collaboration between purchasers and providers, they also point to the continued relevance and usefulness of local authority managed provision.