Managing and delivering welfare

There has been a huge change in the way we manage and deliver welfare services since the 1980s .
The emergence of the ‘New Public Management’ saw an increased emphasis on performance management and techniques from private management being brought into public management .
At the same time as the NPM appeared, the boundaries between public and private management were also blurred as market-based mechanisms were introduced into areas traditionally based on public provision only.
In the 2010s, many of the ideas that were central to the NPM appear to be under question, as research supporting them has been undermined and there have been big high-profile problems in public service delivery that the NPM has not prevented.
Looking forward, we need to embrace psychological and research giving us a richer view of organisational life, while accepting that some form of public management is necessary.