Social Innovation for Filling the Resource–Needs Gap in Social Services: New Governance Arrangements

Abstract

[Abstract] The innovation stream that is the focus of this chapter is the new governance of social services systems. Whereas this new governance of the social services systems serves as the overarching theme for the social innovations occurring in the field of social services in the four countries included in this chapter—Spain, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom—the authors aims to focus their investigation on new governance arrangements aiming to mobilise organisational resources and capabilities for the provision of social services to vulnerable segments of population. They analyses how the result from collaborations among organisations of different sectors, and specifically try to understand the extent to which citizens participate in the social innovation stream, and the roles they participate in. Empowerment objectives and processes in adult social care—ideas such as ‘active participation’, ‘co-production’, ‘independent living’, ‘living with dignity’, ‘co-responsibility’, ‘self-care’, ‘personalisation of care’—have only recently appeared in social services discourse and activity.