Essay on Third Sector Partnerships with Public Services in the UK

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THIRD SECTOR ORGANISATIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICES
TASK 2

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Role, Delivery and Benefits of Third Sector Partnerships with Public services.............................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
Third sector organisations are different firms that are neither public nor private sector and
include voluntary or community-based services. These are independent organisations not under
the government and are considered as an important part of the sector of life. Rees and Mullins
(2016) opined that these sectors are a value-driven and is encouraged to offer social goals instead
of earning the profit. In case, the business generates any surplus, it will immediately invest it in
the pursing of their goals. The aim of this essay is to shed light upon the role, delivery modes
and benefits gained from the third sector partnership with public services with a focus to
paramedics operations in the UK.
Role, Delivery and Benefits of Third Sector Partnerships with Public services
Role of third sector organisations, type of work and its role within society
The phrase ‘third sector’ is a debatable factor within the current governmental sector that had
duly rejected the use of it in describing a sector. It is referred to as ‘civil society’ and involves
charitable and voluntary services, mutual and social enterprise and others. According to
Henttonen et al., (2016), the role of the third sector is variable in nature and depends on the
services offered by the individual organisation. It can be seen that large organisations involve
numerous activities that are not found in small corporations. The major role of the third sector
organisations is community-based, supporting certain groups and meeting the basic needs of the
people. It involves bridging the gaps between private and public sectors, help in outsourcing
activities, supporting in front line services and mitigating budgeting limitation by highlighting
various cases in public services. The third sector firms are involved in supporting victims,
vulnerable group and disabled people for a long-term basis. It offers housing, legal and
community-based aid to people that are in need. The services majorly incorporated in this sector
are mental services, pastoral, addiction, emotional support and rehabilitation. It supports young
people in various extracurricular activities and home care for old people as well as food and
clothing to the poor.
The role of the third sector corporation is critical to society. This is because it offers voluntarily
help to people that are in need and allow improving the standard of life to a large number of
people. It is found to play an important role in the development of better services and meeting
the public’s expectations. The strengths of this sector are it is able to deliver services to most
affected people, offering innovative solutions in a personalised manner. It helps in offering
upgraded service without the help of government and by collaborating with others to deliver
services (Dey and Teasdale, 2016).
Outline, define, and compare types of public services delivered by third sector organisations
using real-world examples
The organisations offer educational support that helps in improving the literacy rate in the
country. It offers public services such as ambulance and emergency services known as
paramedics. Clayton et al., (2016) opined that this is a critical service offered by the
professionals in order to provide medical care before they are transported to hospitals. It aids in
housing programs such as care home, social housing, supported housing and retirement housing.
Examples of this type of service are Trust Housing Association Ltd, Trust Housing Association
and Brighton Housing Trust. The advocacy or legal advices are provided to the citizens of the
UK in order to ease their responsibilities in relation to legal matters. People can reach out to the
Citizens Advice that offers legal advice at low cost. The probation services, for example, G4S,
NACROS and community transport, Ealing Community Transport help in operating a wide
range of community in transport services by furnishing safe, affordable and accessible transport
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facilities for the community. One of the most challenging issues faced in the UK is therapy and
mental health as large numbers of people are affected due to various reasons. Thus, community
help related to this from Mind Substance misuse work like Addiction Search and Rescue help in
offering support to improve the welfare of those people.
Compare and analyse barriers and benefits to the third sector organisations and to public
services through partnerships and outsourcing
From the opinion of Moullin (2017), it can be seen that third sector organisations are offering
public services with the help of outsourcing and partnership. The partnership is formed for three
major reasons including innovation, campaigning for change and in delivering services in an
effective manner. In terms of innovation, it is important to undertake a pioneering approach and
in better designing of services. An example is Cancer Research UK that collaborates with the UK
Department of Health to offer treatment and care to cancer patients. In terms of promoting
changes, these organisations are acting as a catalyst that helps in offering better services to needy
and disabled people as well as the development of care services. For delivering of paramedic
services for the residents of the UK, St John Ambulance is a volunteer initiated a charitable
organisation that is initiated to offer first aid services in England (Sja.org.uk, 2019). It has
collaborated with National Health Services (NHS) ambulance services that allow in outsourcing
its services to areas other than England. Paramedics operations is a form of public services that
involved providing critical medical care that requires innovation, technological development and
experience in order to give better services. Therefore collaborating with NHS is one of the most
significant in this aspect. The health status of the country is improving over the years as critical
care is offered to people that require it and people that are unable to bear the expenses required in
such treatment procedures. Thus, the impact of this service in society is observed in numbers of
ways. It can be stated that even though the paramedic service of St John Ambulance is found to
have certain benefits as well as barriers that hinder the effective operation of the charity.
The benefits of the third sector organisation are it appropriately engages the users in large
numbers that help in extending services to various communities and groups of people that cannot
be reached by either private or public sectors. Paramedic services involve giving medical care
while transporting seriously ill people in remote areas. According to Torfing et al., (2016), this is
found to empower the communities and serving them without any form of bias or discrimination.
The service of St John Ambulance as high-quality care to all people that is in need. This initiated
the establishment of a high level of trust factor, respect and confidence among the public.
Moreover, it can be seen that it offers personalised and tailored services in its approach. For
example, an individual may have suffered from a heart attack, thus, cardiologic care will be
offered at an immediate basis, and however, in case, an old person had fall a height, thus, pain
relievers and orthopaedic support is given. The service offered by St John Ambulance is
innovative, community-based and contributes to the social well-being of the public by
understanding the need of both the community and user. On the other hand, it had been observed
that there are barriers that hinder effective services to the user by this sector. The location of the
organisation is one of the hindrances as it may be far from the area of the user as a result, timely
service cannot be presented. From the opinion of Salamon and Sokolowski (2016), lack of
understanding, knowledge of the process and less number of voluntary may pose a threat to this
service.
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Justification of use of third sector organisations and its application in a range of public
services
The public service commissioning is found rapidly increase which is considered as a central
repository for ‘buying’ the services in the mixed economic status of public services in the UK.
As stated by Nabatchi et al., (2017), the wide range of outcome includes the third sector. The
process applied in this organisation involves the implication of bidding and funds for contracts.
The utility of the service support, offer help and advice to the governing bodies in case of
applying for the bids and grants for obtaining contracts. This presents an opportunity for gaining
a three year or more fund or contract at the local level. Moreover, it helps in gaining an ability to
reduce the cost of overhead using these funding by attaining timely payment for the respective
bodies. The administration helps in maintaining the contract, receiving funds. However, it can be
found that there is an excessive burden being exerted in the process of monitoring and assessing
as it needs to demonstrate services to a wide range of people.
Conclusion
The essay can be concluded by stating that third sector organisations are critical in society as it
offers various benefits by availing a wide range of services to the public. These are developing
over time that allows in properly meeting the expectations of the people in an effective manner.
Paramedic services offered by St John Ambulance have been highlighted in order to demonstrate
the third sector organisations in delivering public services. It typically highlighted the operations
involved in the application of a wide range of public services in the UK.
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References
Clayton, J., Donovan, C. and Merchant, J., 2016. Distancing and limited resourcefulness: Third
sector service provision under austerity localism in the north east of England. Urban
Studies, 53(4), pp.723-740.
Dey, P. and Teasdale, S., 2016. The tactical mimicry of social enterprise strategies: Acting ‘as
if’in the everyday life of third sector organizations. Organization, 23(4), pp.485-504.
Henttonen, K., Kianto, A. and Ritala, P., 2016. Knowledge sharing and individual work
performance: an empirical study of a public sector organisation. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 20(4), pp.749-768.
Moullin, M., 2017. Improving and evaluating performance with the Public Sector
Scorecard. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 66(4), pp.442-
458.
Nabatchi, T., Sancino, A. and Sicilia, M., 2017. Varieties of participation in public services: The
who, when, and what of coproduction. Public Administration Review, 77(5), pp.766-776.
Rees, J. and Mullins, D. 2017. The third sector delivering public services: developments,
innovations and challenges (Third Sector Research Series). Bristol: Policy Press.
Salamon, L.M. and Sokolowski, S.W., 2016. Beyond nonprofits: Re-conceptualizing the third
sector. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(4),
pp.1515-1545.
Sja.org.uk. 2019. What we do - St John Ambulance. Available at: http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/what-
we-do1.aspx [Accessed 20 Jun. 2019].
Torfing, J., Sørensen, E. and Røiseland, A., 2016. Transforming the public sector into an arena
for co-creation: Barriers, drivers, benefits, and ways forward. Administration & Society,
p.0095399716680057.
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