New modes of service delivery in the public sector – Commercialising government services

Abstract

There is an international trend to contestability and marketisation in the delivery of public services. The underlying foundation of these trends is that competition results in improved outcomes such as greater efficiency, higher quality of service, a clearer focus on customers and better value for money. This paper examines an approach to the reform agenda that avoids the more dramatic responses of privatisation, corporatisation and large‐scale contracting out while still focusing on achieving commercial principles in public sector service delivery. Commercialisation, in this context, provides a way of developing commercial arrangements yet maintains service delivery within the public sector and offers the possibility of retaining important social objectives.