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Volunteer association perceptions of municipal policy strategies to promote co-production of healthy ageing services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2018

CHRISTIAN ELLING SCHEELE Open the ORCID record for CHRISTIAN ELLING SCHEELE [Opens in a new window] ,
KARSTEN VRANGBÆK  and
MARGIT KRIEGBAUM
CHRISTIAN ELLING SCHEELE*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Centre for Healthy Ageing, Centre for Health Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
KARSTEN VRANGBÆK
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Centre for Healthy Ageing, Centre for Health Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
MARGIT KRIEGBAUM
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Centre for Healthy Ageing, Centre for Health Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
*
Address for correspondence: Christian Elling Scheele, Department of Public Health, Centre for Healthy Ageing, University of Copenhagen, Oester Farimagsgade 5, 1054 Copenhagen K, Denmark E-mail: chsc@sund.ku.dk
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Abstract

Civic society voluntary associations promote healthy ageing by increasing older adults’ social and physical activity levels and through the co-production of services aimed at other senior citizens. Local governments are increasingly interested in collaborating with such associations as a policy response to an expanding ageing population. Co-production requires a flexible, network-based governance approach, which has not been examined from the voluntary associations’ point of view. This study explores how voluntary associations perceive the relevance and usefulness of public policies aimed at promoting co-production of services for ageing citizens. The study is based on quantitative data collected through a survey sent to 1,060 voluntary associations (N = 571) in three Danish municipalities. We also studied municipalities’ policies relevant to co-production of services aimed at senior citizens. We found that all of these policies included the explicit ambition of network governance of co-production of services targeted to address healthy ageing issues. However, our study indicates that the voluntary associations perceive the actual network governance to be somewhat fragmented and the corresponding scope of co-production was limited, which indicates the failure of municipalities to implement policy goals. Accordingly, municipal co-production in this area could probably benefit from the use of relevant key performance indicators that can enable political-administrative monitoring in order to secure deeper implementation and political accountability that promotes healthy ageing at the local level.

Keywords

co-productionhealthy ageingnetwork governancelocal government
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 39 , Issue 6 , June 2019 , pp. 1152 - 1171
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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