The enduring and escalating crisis in public services has been recognised as demanding preventative, outcomes-focused reform (Christie, 2011). The Scottish policy response has called for collaboration and social prescribing (i.e. linking people into support in the community) to spread costs and tackle complex social problems such as social inequality. However, the focus has typically been on relationships between statutory partners, with far less consideration of the full system of actors involved, including the third sector (Strokosch and Roy, 2024). Furthermore, studies on social prescribing have not offered sufficient detail to demonstrate the third sector’s role and impact (Bickerdike et al, 2017).

This research will focus on the community level to explore the role and impact of third sector organisations in value co-creation, as well as the institutional factors enabling and constraining their contribution. This will be explored in the context of preventative services aimed at reducing cycles of social inequality.

Using a qualitative multi case study approach, the research will investigate the various dimensions of the service ecosystem (e.g. resources, roles, relationships, institutional arrangements) impacting value co-creation processes (Vargo and Lusch, 2016), the involvement of third sector organisations and value outcomes for service users and communities. Each is of relevance to the long-term sustainability of the third sector and its services, and in making a stronger case for preventative spend to reduce pressures on statutory services and ultimately to support transformative social change. 

The research has the following four objectives:

• understand the concept of value offered by third sector preventative services to service users/communities
• analyse the role of the third sector in value co-creation, focusing on relationships with the public sector and the contributions third sector organisations make during service delivery
• explore the institutional enablers and constraints within the system impacting the third sector’s role and capacity to make resource integrations. This includes better understanding the cross-sectoral relationships third sector service providers have with statutory sector providers and decision-makers, and with service users/ communities
• develop evidence-based recommendations for policy and practice regarding the role and impact of the third sector in an impactful public service system

Further information

This studentship is partly funded by Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and Capital City Partnership have also each committed in-kind support.