New Public Governance, the Third Sector, and Co-Production

18  The Challenges of Co-Managementfor Public Accountability

Lessons from Flemish Child Care

Diederik Vancoppenolleand Bram Verschuere

INTRODUCTION

Numerous scholars (Gormley and Balla, 2004; Brandsen and Pestoff, 2006; Defourny and Pestoff, 2008; Heinrich, 2008; Pestoff and Brandsen, 2010; Macmillan, 2010) have argued that public services are increasingly being delivered by third sector organizations. The new public management (NPM) belief that service provision by nongovernmental actors may be more efficient, effective and customer-oriented compared to public service provision by governmental actors might have intensified this trend. But even in countries where nonprofit organizations traditionally have played a major role in delivering public ...