La co-produzione dei servizi pubblici sta attraendo l’attenzione di accademici e practitioner. Il coinvolgimento a titolo individuale o collettivo dei cittadini nell’erogazione dei servizi è raccomandato dalla fase di pianificazione a quella di valutazione. Tale approccio, però, non sembra essere stato approfondito in modo adeguato. L’articolo intende contribuire a colmare questo gap tramite l’analisi di un caso di studio relativo alla co-produzione dei servizi per persone affette da autismo in un contesto di governance multilivello. I risultati mostrano che un approccio co-produttivo esteso a tutte le fasi richiede lo sviluppo di nuove competenze e strumenti operativi, sebbene non possa prescindere, in un contesto di civil law come quello italiano, dai tradizionali strumenti giuridici a disposizione del management. Inoltre, è cruciale la presenza e lo sviluppo di una relazione di reciproca fiducia tra tutti gli attori rilevanti coinvolti nelle diverse fasi del processo di gestione dei servizi e non solo nella fase di erogazione.
The topic of co-production of public services has gained a lot of appeal among academics and practitioners. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the role of co-production of public services throughout the cycle of public services management. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing a case study of co-production of services for autistic children in a context of multi-level governance. Findings show that prompting co-production across all the stages of public services management (co-planning, co-design, co-delivery, co-evaluation) requires new skills and new organizational arrangements even though, in institutional contexts of ‘civil law’ such as Italy, the processes of co-production must also be implemented consistently with procedures and tools provided by law. Finally, findings point to the role of trust among the actors involved as a key variable for the development of co-production along the different stages of public services management.
The topic of co-production of public services has gained a lot of appeal among academics and practitioners. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the role of co-production of public services throughout the cycle of public services management. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing a case study of co-production of services for autistic children in a context of multi-level governance. Findings show that prompting co-production across all the stages of public services management (co-planning, co-design, co-delivery, co-evaluation) requires new skills and new organizational arrangements even though, in institutional contexts of ‘civil law’ such as Italy, the processes of co-production must also be implemented consistently with procedures and tools provided by law. Finally, findings point to the role of trust among the actors involved as a key variable for the development of co-production along the different stages of public services management.
