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Impact of changes in purchasing practices in the municipal procurement of youth healthcare services in the Netherlands

Hoogenraad, W.D. (2022) Impact of changes in purchasing practices in the municipal procurement of youth healthcare services in the Netherlands.

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Abstract:In 2015, municipalities in the Netherlands became responsible for organising youth care, including contracting youth care services. This decentralisation was aimed at improving the quality of youth care, reduce costs and reduce the use of these services. One of the key instruments to achieve these policy goals is the strategy in purchasing youth care services. Different purchasing practices have different incentives and competitive mechanisms, which can be expected to impact the efficiency and quality of the contracted care providers. In the years following 2015, some municipalities were consistent in their purchasing practices, while others kept changing their purchasing practices, typically as a means to achieve better outcomes in terms of costs and quality. The question is whether frequent major changes lead to better results or that these changes actually come at a cost. In this research, the impact of changes in purchasing practices in the municipal procurement of youth care services is studied. This study generated some interesting results. First of all, in the dataset at hand, changes in how suppliers are contracted is associated with a higher average relative increase in costs compared to municipalities that did not change how suppliers are contracted. Meanwhile, changing the type of contracts used is associated with a lower average relative increase in costs. Secondly, while current popular opinion among municipalities and high level politicians is that non-selective contracting of suppliers (such as Open House) may be one of the causes for the rise in cost, this is not supported by the findings of this research. This research underlines the importance of evidence-based policy studies for shaping policy and decision making, and urges municipalities to be careful when making changes in purchasing practices, especially with regards to the selection of suppliers.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Public Procurement Research Centre, Lunteren, Netherlands
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/93908
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