Human Services Contracting

In the last thirty-five years, governments around the globe increasingly seek out and agree contracts with non-profit and for-profit entities designed to provide a portion of the public sector’s portfolio of goods and services. Although there is strong evidence to suggest that human service contracting is growing over time, scholarship continues to lag on topics related to human service contract management, policy implementation and innovation, performance-based contracting, and evaluation. This new volume in the Public Solutions Handbook series is the first volume-length treatment of human services contracting issues, integrating both policy and practice, and exploring a broad range of issues that comprise the field: history, growth, innovations, results and outcomes, best practices, and the future of government human service contracting. Chapters examine specific human service contracts, both in the US and abroad, geared to practitioners in the public sector – from local government service contractors to municipal employees – as well as MPA students and those enrolled in courses on intergovernmental relations and nonprofit management.