The third sector and welfare state modernisation: inputs, activities and comparative performance

This paper charts the economic contribution of the third sector in the UK, noting its significant presence in core welfare state fields, and setting it in comparative international context. It then offers a conceptual framework, the “production of welfare” approach, for analysing how the third sector “performs” in welfare states in terms of inputs and outputs. Efficiency, effectiveness, equity, advocacy, choice and participation are discussed in this context. Social and political pressures which make it imperative to examine efficiency in the particular case of social care for older people in Europe are then identified, and the third sector’s “performance” in terms of economy, efficiency and effectiveness is explored.