Funding and providing social services: The good, the bad and the third way?

Abstract

The funder/provider split in the area of social services is now a long-established reality in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It has been the subject of much debate and criticism see, for example, Boston et at 1996. However, it remains the principal means by which a range of NGO service providers gains access to State funding. At the same time, with the advent of a new Labour-Alliance coalition government in 1999, the possibility arises that one of the social policy reforms the government might consider would be to amend or even to abolish the funder/provider system.