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Civic society voluntary associations promote healthy ageing by increasing older adults' social and physical activity levels and through the co-production of services aimed at other senior citizens. Local governments are increasingly interested in collaborating with such associations as a policy response to an expanding ageing population. Co-production requires a flexible, network-based governance approach, which has not been examined from the voluntary associations' point of view. This study explores how voluntary associations perceive the relevance and usefulness of public policies aimed at promoting co-production of services for ageing citizens. The study is based on quantitative data collected through a survey sent to 1,060 voluntary associations (N = 571) in three Danish municipalities. We also studied municipalities' policies relevant to co-production of services aimed at senior citizens. We found that all of these policies included the explicit ambition of network governance of co-production of services targeted to address healthy ageing issues. However, our study indicates that the voluntary associations perceive the actual network governance to be somewhat fragmented and the corresponding scope of co-production was limited, which indicates the failure of municipalities to implement policy goals. Accordingly, municipal co-production in this area could probably benefit from the use of relevant key performance indicators that can enable political-administrative monitoring in order to secure deeper implementation and political accountability that promotes healthy ageing at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To provide a preliminary answer to the question of whether the economic incentives introduced by the municipal co-financing of hospital services work as intended in the reform. Methods: This study is based on 30 statistical cross-section linear regressions, OLS, using data from Statistics Denmark (Statistikbanken) and the Municipal Financial Accounts. Supplemented by data from a survey study from municipal health managers in all municipalities of the country. Results: Despite the favourable conditions presented by the design of our analysis, it is not possible to demonstrate a clear link between local efforts and number of admissions from the municipalities. Conclusions: The study does not support one of the fundamental theoretical assumptions behind the municipal co-financing introduced in the 2007 structural reform in Denmark. While the study failed to establish systematic links between municipal public health efforts and hospitalisation levels, it appears from other studies that municipalities are in fact increasing their activities in public health. This presents a theoretical puzzle and we present several possible explanations for further empirical work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Further integration of the public value literature with other strands of literature within Public Administration necessitates a more specific classification of public values. This article applies a typology linked to organizational design principles, because this is useful for empirical public administration studies. Based on an existing typology of modes of governance, we develop a classification and test it empirically, using survey data from a study of the values of 501 public managers. We distinguish among seven value dimensions (the public at large, rule abidance, balancing interests, budget keeping, efficient supply, professionalism, and user focus), and we find systematic differences between organizations at different levels and with different tasks, indicating that the classification is fruitful. Our goal is to enable more precise analyses of value conflicts and improve the integration between the public value literature and other parts of the Public Administration discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of public sector values has been increasingly important in public sector reform debates in Europe in the past decade. While there is much debate over values and normative basis there is limited empirical evidence on value profiles and value changes. This article aims to address such limitations by presenting data from a major survey based study of value orientations at all levels in the Danish public sector. The article investigates the following questions: How do public managers perceive values in the public sector? Can we construct value profiles for the public sector or parts of it? Two related hypotheses are suggested. First that it is possible to identify a set of values that is regarded as important by almost all public managers and second that these value profiles are reflected in value orientations and perceptions regarding staff skills and motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the potential protective role of baseline resources and capabilities for experiencing challenges to emotional well-being and perceived access to and quality of diabetes care during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Danish type 2 diabetes population (N = 1608). We investigated how differences in self-efficacy, well-being capability, socioeconomic status, health status, and perceptions of diabetes care measured before the COVID-19 pandemic were related to experiences of well-being and diabetes management challenges during the pandemic. The study is based on a survey conducted shortly before the pandemic (autumn 2019) and a follow-up survey during the pandemic (autumn 2020), which included questions about impacts of the pandemic. We used this longitudinal data to quantitatively investigate in regression analyses how self-reported baseline indicators of chronic care access and quality (PACIC), self-efficacy (GSE), health (EQ VAS), and well-being capability (ICECAP-A), and registry-based socioeconomic indicators were associated with the probability of reporting negative impacts on emotional wellbeing and diabetes management. Results showed that respondents with higher baseline general self-efficacy and higher well-being capability scores, who more often considered care well-organised and were in better health before the pandemic, were less likely to report pandemic-related negative impacts on emotional well-being. Considering diabetes care well organised before the pandemic was associated with a lower probability of adverse impacts on diabetes care. The results thus broadly confirmed that several indicators of higher levels of baseline resources and capabilities were associated with a lower probability of reporting negative impacts of the pandemic. However, some variation in predictors was observed for general well-being outcomes, compared to diabetes-care specific challenges, and findings on socioeconomic status as indicated by education were mixed. • Novel panel data on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing and diabetes care. • Capabilities associated with lower probability of negative impact on wellbeing. • Impacts on diabetes care associated with baseline healthcare related resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The involvement of private for-profit (FP) and not-for-profit (NFP) providers in the otherwise public delivery of welfare services is gradually changing the Nordic welfare state towards a more market-oriented mode of service delivery. This article examines the relationship between ownership and quality of care in public and private FP and NFP nursing homes in Denmark. The analysis draws on original survey data and administrative registry data (quality inspection reports) for the full population of almost 1000 nursing homes in Denmark. Quality is measured in terms of structural quality, process quality and outcome quality. We find that public nursing homes have a higher structural quality (in terms of, for instance, staffing), while FP providers perform better in terms of process quality (e.g. in the form of individualised care). NFP providers perform well in terms of structural criteria such as employment of full-time staff and receive fewer critical comments in the inspection reports. However, the results depend to some extent upon the method of data collection, which underlines the benefits of using multiple data sources to examine the relationship between ownership and the quality of care. Highlights • The article analyzes quality differences between public and private nursing homes. • Overall, ownership is not significantly associated with quality differences. • Public nursing homes perform, however, better on some dimensions of structural quality. • Private for-profit nursing homes perform better on some dimensions of process quality. • Non-profit nursing homes receive fewer critical comments in official inspection reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]