How are local or situated knowledge and expertise in the non-profit sector faring under the purchase-of-service model?
Peri O’Shea, Michael Darcy and Rosemary Leonard
Social Justice & Social Change Research Centre
Contact Email:   p.osheauws.edu.au

This paper draws on data from three SJSC research projects examining the effects of quasi-market reform on non-profit organisations in NSW. These projects comprise of: two interview studies and on-line survey of sector workers and management committee members. These studies found that local knowledge is valued and seen as extremely significant to the effective provision of community services by workers and management committee members of non-profit organisations. It was found that these same workers and managers believed that the increased prescriptive nature of state and federal funding programmes, through funding contracts, had devalued or ‘side-lined’ local knowledge. Nonetheless, it was also found that there was a degree of pragmatic adjustment in organisations that allowed them to continue to develop and use situated knowledge. Organisations whose primary focus was community development, policy advocacy or lobbying, however, were more likely to say that the way that outcomes were reported or measured were not relevant to the aims of their programs. This paper explores how local knowledge and expertise is faring under a purchase-of-service model and suggests strategies to assist organisations to ensure that needs specific to their community remain relevant under this model.

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