Factors influencing the success of PPP at feasibility stage – A tripartite comparison study in Hong Kong

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) have been used extensively in both developing and developed countries in delivering various types of projects, ranging from road construction, railway transport systems to health care facilities and schools. Critical success factors of PPP schemes at the implementation stage were identified. It is however more important for decision-makers to identify the factors for feasibility evaluation of adopting the PPP at the outset. This study aims to explore the key successful ingredients to be assessed at the initial stage of PPP projects as perceived public sector, private consortium and general community so as to attain a “triple win” scenario, via a questionnaire survey and a series of expert interviews conducted in Hong Kong. Survey results indicate that the most critical factor for evaluating the feasibility of PPP projects, especially to the general community, is an acceptable level of tariff. Cost effectiveness and financial attractiveness are the most important evaluation factors as ranked by the public sector and private consortium respectively. In addition, the existence of a long-term demand for the proposed services, availability of strong private consortium, alignment with government’s strategic objectives, as well as reliable service delivery are also rated as highly important to the success of PPP schemes. Addressing the tripartite expectations is indispensable to ensure the feasibility and successful delivery of public services and infrastructure projects via PPP schemes.     

Community-Based System,Reports, and Substantiated Cases of Elder Abuse: Disparities Between Municipalities and Relating Factors in Japan

This study examines (1) the staffing and financial characteristics of systems for elder abuse detection and intervention in the municipal governments of Japan and (2) the relationship among the development of detection and intervention systems, the reporting rates of suspected elder abuse cases, and substantiated abuse rates in 927 municipalities across Japan. Progressive systems for the detection and intervention of elder abuse were significantly associated with a larger number of public officers than in non-progressive systems. Furthermore, greater rates of both suspected and substantiated cases of abuse were associated with progressive systems for elder abuse detection and intervention. Per capita annual expenditures on the comprehensive support project and the community general support center's catchment under the Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) program showed no significant association with the development of systems, the rate of suspected cases, or the number of substantiated cases. National social policy makers should examine strategies that would help municipalities assign sufficient staff to elder abuse detection and intervention programs.     

Defining the severely mentally disabled

A definition of the "known target population of severely mentally disabled" in community mental health centers is examined. Criteria include intensive treatment contact and persistent, severe disability, but not diagnosis. Feasible and reliable screening procedures are demonstrated. In the identified population, most subjects at some time had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia and had been on public assistance. These criteria apply to catchmented treatment systems and should be useful in services research.     

Anchors of the community: community schools in Chicago

In partnership with Chicago's public and private sectors, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has successfully implemented a citywide education reform effort, designed to transform Chicago's neighborhood schools into vibrant centers of the community. Mayor Richard M. Daley and Arne Duncan, CEO of CPS, launched the Community Schools Initiative in January 2002. What started as an idea that was developed by a local foundation has now grown into the largest-scale community school effort in the nation, with sixty-seven schools in operation and a plan to move to one hundred community schools by 2007. This initiative currently involves seventeen private funders, ten technical assistance providers, thirty-four community-based organizations that offer on-site services to children and families, and over three hundred additional community partnerships that provide one-day events such as health fairs and violence prevention workshops.     

Access to Philanthropic and Commercial Income Among Nonprofit Community Service Organisations

Governments depend on nonprofit, voluntary sector organisations to deliver social and community services, and public funding is the sector’s most important income source. However, in many countries, public funding for social services is becoming more limited, conditional and precarious, and governments are encouraging nonprofits to diversify their funding base, and shift their reliance to income from market activity and private donations. This article is concerned with access to philanthropic and commercial funding among nonprofits, and the factors affecting it. It firstly discusses an emerging policy agenda to promote private funding among nonprofit community service providers. Then, multivariate analysis of survey data from 521 Australian nonprofits shows which organisations access income from client fees, business activities, community fundraising, and philanthropic foundations. By exploring inequalities in the distribution of these main sources of private funding, the article helps identify the types of organisations that face challenges in establishing and sustaining streams of private income, and which are likely to require ongoing public support.     

Can development communication improve urban management?

This paper is attempting to peg-out the particular role of ‘development support communication’ (DSC) for urban management in developing countries, for the interaction or interface between the public, the private, the non-governmental and the community sectors. The aim of this paper is to advocate to urban managers the inclusion of DSC among their management instruments, and in particular during the preparation and implementation of particular programmes and projects. The point is made that DSC will increase the chances for success of development projects and programmes, and that it will help to improve the relationships of urban stakeholders among each other.     

Community-managed water supplies in Africa: sustainable or dispensable?

Over the past two decades, community management has become theprevalent model for management of rural water supplies throughoutsub-Saharan Africa. Despite its widespread popularity amongdonors and implementing agencies, low water supply sustainabilitylevels throughout the sub-continent indicate that it is notthe panacea it is often presented to be. There is a strong needto distinguish between ‘community participation’which is a prerequisite for sustainability and ‘communitymanagement’ which is not. If community management systemsare to be sustainable, they require ongoing support from anoverseeing institution to provide encouragement and motivation,monitoring, participatory planning, capacity building, and specialisttechnical assistance. If such support is not available, alternativessuch as household water supplies and private sector servicedelivery should be considered.     

Incorporation and Gated Communities in the Greater Metro-Los Angeles Region as a Model of Privatization of Residential Communities

ABSTRACT

The privatization of urban public space has accelerated through the closing, redesign, and policing of public parks and plazas, the development of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) that monitor and control local streets and parks, and the transfer of public air rights for the building of corporate plazas ostensibly open to the public. In the suburbs, privatization also takes the form of conservation easements that restrict access to public lands, the creation of shopping malls and new town centers relocated within these private commercial developments, and the building of gated residential communities. Accompanying this expansion of private interests are changes in strategies of governance and regional differences in how local governments and residents are encouraging private encroachment on public space. This article focuses this third set of privatization practices by discussing how gated communities manipulate municipal and town planning laws to control public space and tax dollars. To accomplish this task, I discuss the emergence of gated communities as a new form of privatization of urban/suburban space and then tease out the legal and institutional underpinnings of this spatial governance. The geography of gated communities in greater metro-Los Angeles region and their use of the strategy of incorporation to capture public taxes for private use is employed as a model for understanding the future of gating in the United States. The Los Angeles model is then compared to current gating patterns in urban and suburban gated communities in New York and Texas. These manipulations of private land use controls in the United States are not necessarily new, but with gating there is an accelerating trend away from governmental and public control of land use toward an increased reliance on privately created controls. The consequences of this shift toward privatization of land use control is an impoverishment of the public realm and access to public resources, especially public space.     

Private Support and Public Assistance for Immigrant Families

This paper examines private support and its relationship with public assistance among immigrant families, using native counterparts as a benchmark. It introduces spatial contexts to the set of conventional determinants (socioeconomic conditions, migration experiences, and nativity groups) of receiving private and public support and their potential substitutability. Examining private support reveals that immigrants have less access than natives to private support, and that both majority contact and coethnic contact increase their opportunity for private support. Examining private support and public assistance jointly reveals that, unlike Filipino and Korean backgrounds, which have a weak substitutability effect that increases the probability of receiving private support relative to public assistance, immigrants' coethnic contact does not have such a substitutability effect at all.     

A review of private residential care in Hong Kong: implications for policy and practice

Hong Kong government policy encourages and facilitates families to care for their older members as long as possible by providing families and their older relatives with community support services. Residential care for the elderly is viewed as a last resort. Due to the inadequate supply of community support services, the long period of care required, and the gradual breakdown of values of filial support, families may increasingly give up their caring roles and seek residential care for their dependent elderly relatives. A shortfall in subsidized residential care may lead to needy elderly persons' being cared for in private residential facilities. The demand for private residential care is projected to increase, despite criticism about the standard of care provided. Although an Ordinance, a Regulation, and a Code of Practice for residential care homes are in place to control, monitor, and upgrade private residential care in Hong Kong, problems remain that put the elderly at risk of receiving substandard services. These include the existence of substandard private aged care homes operating either with or without a license; the provision of substandard "places" to the elderly under the government's "bought place" scheme and "enhanced bought place" scheme; ineffective inspection; a lack of grading to indicate the quality of private aged care homes; and a general neglect of the quality of care. We provide recommendations to address these concerns. This requires paying attention to both the quality of care, as well as to the physical environment of homes.     

The use of antidepressant medications in substance abuse treatment: the public-private distinction, organizational compatibility, and the environment

Many studies of innovation adoption in health care organizations focus either on organizational characteristics or the institutional environment, but not both. Furthermore, these perspectives are rarely employed simultaneously in both public and private health care organizations. This research considers the public-private distinction, organizational compatibility, and interorganizational referral relationships in the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) by substance abuse treatment organizations. Using data from nationally representative samples of 363 publicly funded and 403 privately funded substance abuse treatment centers, a four-category typology of public and private organizations initially predicted variation in SSRI use. However some differences were no longer significant once organizational and environmental characteristics were added to the statistical model. These data support hypotheses about the associations between organizational characteristics and SSRI use as well as hypotheses regarding the external environment. Future research should continue to integrate both internal and external factors in theoretical explanations of innovation adoption.     

A consumer cooperative association specializing in services for the elderly

Over the past 10 years, a Japanese cooperative association named Fukushi Club Seikyo (FCS) has developed a unique, non-profit business specializing in services for the elderly. It aims to promote a reciprocal support system among neighborhood community members. FCS has successively organized its active members, mainly homemakers, into workers' collectives and successfully provided various life support services at a very small charge. Their human-touch service appears in sharp contrast to bureaucratic public services and profit-making private services. The civil initiative presented by FCS suggests a potential for a community-based social service system that may guarantee quality services without raising taxes and premiums for social insurance.     

Seeds of change: using peacemaking circles to build a village for every child

Roca, Inc., a grassroots human development and community organization, has adopted the peacemaking circle as a tool in its relationship building with youth, communities, and formal systems. Circles are a method of communication derived from aboriginal and native traditions. In Massachusetts, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Youth Services are exploring the application of the circle in programming with youth and families. By providing a consistent structure for open, democratic communication, peacemaking circles enhance the formation of positive relationships in families, communities, and systems. The outcome is a stronger community with greater unity across truly diverse participants. This article presents the theory and practice of peacemaking circles, the lessons and challenges of implementing circles in formal organizations, and the potential of the circle to support a strengths-based and community-based approach to child welfare.     

A qualitative data analysis: family victim advocates in child advocacy centers

ABSTRACT

Family victim advocates in child advocacy centers provide a valuable resource to children and parents involved in child abuse investigations. This work requires that family victim advocates be knowledgeable in such areas as child development, crisis intervention, community resources, family relationships, child welfare and criminal justice systems. Because family victim advocates provide essential services to parents and caregivers, the role requires ongoing training and education to remain current on the ever-changing complexities of working with not only the children and families but also the criminal and child protection systems responsible for investigating these cases. The current study reports the findings from a nationwide survey of family victim advocates employed in child advocacy centers related to their motivation for doing the work as well as their perceptions of their training and potential training needs. A group of doctoral students comprised the research team and worked collaboratively under the supervision of university faculty to conduct the qualitative data analysis. The findings describe the characteristics and motivations of family victim advocates working in child advocacy centers and emphasize the need for more advanced trainings that focus on skill-building and strengths-based practices utilized to support children and parents in child abuse cases.     

Gendered economies: Transferring private gender roles into the public realm through rural community development

This paper considers the important issue of women's economic participation in rural community development and regeneration. The paper explores the economic lives and actions of women residents in “Ilston”, a village in the Northumberland Rural Coalfield. The women's narratives illustrate the economic connections between private and public spheres, represented respectively by the household and community-led regeneration initiatives. The connections were realised through a female responsibility for household budget management, which incorporated the protection and maintenance of their personal and household economic status within the community. This role was extended into the public sphere through female responsibility for community group and project fund raising, management and subsequent maintenance of the community group's economic status. This practice formed part of the women's constructed economic identity(ies) within the community, and in turn feminised economic practices regarding community-led development and regeneration in the village.     

Passing a Mental Health Levy

ABSTRACT

The “devolution revolution” has decreased federal and state roles in the funding of social services and increased the burden on local sources, both public and private. This article describes how a community passed an initially unpopular property tax levy earmarked to support local drug, alcohol and mental health services. The article illustrates how social workers employing specific community practice knowledge provided leadership to the successful campaign. This example of community practice leadership includes building and maintaining coalitions, managing group tension and conflict and demonstrating fundamental social work values.     

Housing policy in Nigeria: towards enablement of private housing development

One of the continuing challenges posed by unprecedented urbanization in the developing countries is the provision of adequate housing. Over the last three decades, Nigeria, like several developing countries, has emphasised public housing schemes, but with little success. This coincides with global paradigm shift from direct public provision of housing to the enablement of private shelter initiatives and housing production. The paper discusses private housing development features and dynamics and the factors affecting the sector in the country. It argues for the creation of an enabling environment, including support of housing initiatives and investments by householders, small-scale providers, and entrepreneurial private firms. The paper identifies the implications of enabling strategy for housing finance, access to land, residential infrastructure, institutional regulations and building materials and related industry particularly in the light of the need for the private sector to play greater roles in housing. It draws from aspects of empirical study by the authors and some review of housing policy-related issues.     

The use of key indicators as a foundation for knowledge management: the experiences of Monterey County's Social and Employment Services Department

While effective knowledge management practices are commonly sought by organizations, facilitating the use and ongoing engagement in these practices can be challenging. To this end, one agency developed a strategy for institutionalizing their knowledge management functions by appointing a team responsible for monitoring and implementing knowledge management functions, and creating a report for use as a tool by departments agency-wide. Aimed at increasing transparency both within the agency and with the surrounding community, the report provides an overview of individual departments' programs, goals, recent caseload trends, and latest achievements. The report is made available online and accessible by the general public. This case study describes the development of this team and report, as well as lessons learned and future knowledge management goals for the agency.     

Evidence from the field: Findings on issues related to planning,implementing and evaluating gender-based programs

An Initiative of the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women's Health (OWH), Coalition for a Healthier Community (CHC), supports ten grantees across the U.S. in the implementation of gender-based health interventions targeting women and girls. A national evaluation is assessing whether gender-focused public health systems approaches are sustainable and cost effective in addressing health disparities in women and girls. To inform the evaluation, a systematic examination was conducted of literature in both the public and private sector designed to track, assess, understand, and improve women's health, public health systems approaches, and the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of gender-based programs. A two-person team assured the quality of the results following the review of abstracts and full-text articles. Of 123 articles meeting eligibility criteria (See inclusion criteria described in Section 2.2 below), only 18 met inclusion criteria specific to a focus on a systems approach, cost-effectiveness and/or sustainability. Studies assessing systems approaches suggested their effectiveness in changing perceptions and increasing knowledge within a community; increasing involvement of local decision-makers and other community leaders in women's health issues; and increasing community capacity to address women and girls’ health. Further evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of gender-based approaches is needed.     

The state of public relations in Singapore

The public relations (PR) industry in Singapore is presently in a state of transition. A recent survey reveals that while many of the industry practices are still limited within the scope of media relations, print production, event organization and promotions, there is a growing realization among practitioners for the need to provide higher profile activities related to issues development, strategic planning and image management. The latter activities reflect the trend that the PR industry in Singapore is maturing towards at the agency, private, and public sectors.Findings in the survey indicated that both the agencies and end-users emphasised the need for more training in, and greater usage of services ranging from investor relations to community relations to research (survey). A notable development which lends support to the emerging trend in the PR industry is the Singapore government's push towards the regionalisation of local companies in building the country's external economy.Yeap Soon Beng is a lecturer at the School of Communication Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a council member of the executive committee of the Institute of Public Relations in Singapore, which has given him permission to use data from a survey which was conducted by a local research firm.