Welfare and Public Management in Singapore: A Study of State and Voluntary Sector Partnership

Abstract

The article examines the partnership arrangement between the state and the voluntary sector in the implementation or welfare programmes in Singapore, as an alternative to a conventional welfare state. Under it, the voluntary sector undertakes the major responsibility for the management and delivery of welfare services on a day-to-day basis through a wide range of voluntary welfare organisations. It also is an important source of funding for welfare programmes For its part, the state provides funding for such programmes directly from the budget, and manages and allocates a significant portion of the funding raised by voluntary means. Furthermore, it supplies other resource inputs and assistance necessary for welfare services, such as training, premises, and exemption from certain charges and taxes. In return for being a facilitator and provider, the state exercises regulatory and management control over voluntary welfare organisations to ensure public accountability in the standards of care delivered. The question is whether the regulator/provider — deliverer partnership model allows the state too much leverage over the voluntary sector, as may have happened in other countries according to recent writers. The evidence from Singapore is that voluntary welfare organisations have over the years retained significant discretion in undertaking their professional responsibilities in care delivery, but the recent imposition of operational models, “best practice” frameworks, and performance testing, coupled with the strengthening of the legal provisions governing voluntary welfare organisations, entails a significant extension of the regulatory and management control by the state. This has perhaps undermined the previous balance m the partnership arrangement and more closely wedded the voluntary sector to the state bureaucracy.

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David Seth Jones

David Seth Jones is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore.