Peter Vincent-Jones's Publications
Books
(2006) The New Public Contracting: Regulation, Responsiveness, Relationality pp. xxx,406p Oxford University Press
This book charts the significant increase in Britain over the last 25 years in the deployment of contract as a regulatory mechanism. Since Labour came to power in 1997 the trend has accelerated. The use of contract has spread beyond the sphere of economics into public administration and social policy. The 'new public contracting' is the term given this distinctive mode of governance, characterized by the delegation of contractual powers and responsibilities to public agencies in regulatory frameworks preserving central government controls and powers of intervention. In many cases the contracts are not legally enforceable, their power as regulatory instruments deriving from the hierarchical authority relations in which they are embedded. Examples of the new public contracting include the regulation of relationships between parts of government through Public Service Agreements and Framework Documents; the regulation of relationships between individual citizens and the state through Youth Offender Contracts, Parenting Contracts, and Jobseekers Agreements; the funding of public infrastructure projects through Public Private Partnerships; and the restructuring of key public service sectors such as health, social care and education through contracts in competitive quasi-markets, reflecting the Government's privatization agenda. The book critically analyzes and evaluates such contractual arrangements with reference to theories of relational contract and responsive regulation. It argues that while in business and other private relations contract routinely enables the parties to regulate and adjust their on-going relationships to mutual benefit, this is often not the case in the new public contracting. In many instances crucial elements of trust, voluntariness, and reciprocity are shown to be lacking. This and other weaknesses in regulatory design are likely to impede the attainment of the Government's policy objectives. The book demonstrates the problems of ineffectiveness and lack of legitimacy generally associated with this mode of regulation, and specifies institutional and other conditions that need to be satisfied for the more responsive governance of these public service functions.
Chapters
(2010) From Collaborative to Genetic Governance: The Example of Healthcare Services in England In: Schutter Od; Lenoble J (eds.) Reflexive Governance: Redefining the Public Interest in a Pluralistic World pp. 147 - 178 Hart Pub
(2005) Corporatization, Competition, and the Public Interest in Health Services Regulation In: Prosser T; O'Malley P; Scott C; McDermont M; Vincent-Jones P; Feintuck M; Cowan D (eds.) Law, Economic Incentives, and Public Service Culture University of Bristol
(2003) The Regulation of Contractualisation in Quasi-markets for Public Services In: Scott C (eds.) Regulation pp. 459 - 482 Ashgate Dartmouth
(2001) From Housing Management to the Management of Housing: The Challenge of Best Value In: Cowan; D; Marsh; A (eds.) Two Steps Forward: Housing Policy into the New Millennium pp. 241 - 261 The Policy Press
(2001) The Reception of Ian Macneil's Work on Contract in the UK In: Campbell D (eds.) Selected Papers of Ian Macneil pp. 67 - 85 Sweet and Maxwell
Journal Articles
(2011) Embedding Economic Relationships through Social Learning? The Limits of Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare Governance in England In: JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY 38 pp. 215 - 244
(2011) The Democratic Potential of Public Participation: Healthcare Governance in England In: SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 20 pp. 21 - 38
(2011) The Use of Standard Contracts in the English National Health Service In: Social Science and Medicine 73 pp. 185 - 192
(2011) Contracts in the English NHS: Market Levers and Social Embeddedness In: Health Sociology Review 20 pp. 321 - 337
(2009) New Labour's PPI Reforms: Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare Governance? In: MODERN LAW REVIEW 72 pp. 247 - 271
(2009) Choice Versus Voice: PPI Policies and the Repositioning of the State in England and Wales In: Health Expectations 12 (3) pp. 237 - 250
Changing patient and public involvement (PPI)policies in England and Wales are analysed against the background of wider National Health Service (NHS) reforms and regulatory frameworks. We argue that the growing divergence of health policies is accompanied by a re-positioning of the state vis-a`-vis PPI, characterized by different mixes of centralized and decentralized regulatory instruments. In England, continued hierarchical control is combined with the delegation of responsibilities for the oversight and organization of PPI to external institutions such as the Care Quality Commission and local involvement networks, in support of the government_s policy agenda of increasing marketization. In Wales, which has rejected market reforms and economic regulation, decentralization is occurring through the use of mixed regulatory approaches and networks suited to the small-country governance model, and seeks to benefit from the close proximity of central and local actors by creating new forms of engagement while maintaining central steering of service planning. Whereas English PPI policies have emerged in tandem with a pluralistic supply-side market and combine new institutional arrangements for patient choice with other forms of involvement, the Welsh policies focus on voice within a largely publicly-delivered service. While the English reforms draw on theories of economic regulation and the experience of independent regulation in the utilities sector, the Welsh model of local service integration has been more influenced by reforms in local government. Such transfers of governance instruments from other public service sectors to the NHS may be problematic.
(2008) Schisms in the Church: National Health Service Systems and Institutional Divergence in England and Wales In: JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 49 pp. 400 - 416
(2007) The New Public Contracting: Public versus Private Ordering? In: Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 14 (2) pp. 259 - 278 Bloomington: Indiana University School of Law
(2002) Values and Purpose in Government: Central-local Relations in Regulatory Perspective In: Journal of Law and Society 29 (1) pp. 27 - 55 Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
(2002) Regulating Government by Contract: Towards a Public Law Framework? In: The Modern Law Review 65 (4) pp. 611 - 628 Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
(2001) Housing Management in Three Metropolitan Local Authorities: The Impact of CCT and Implications for Best Value In: Local Government Studies 27 (2) pp. 69 - 92 Frank Cass
Reports
(2004) The New Public Contracting in Socio-Legal Perspective
Contact Details
- Tel: 0113 343 7112
- Email: P.Vincent-Jones@leeds.ac.uk