Market stewardship of quasi-markets by street level bureaucrats: The role of local area coordinators in the Australian personalisation system

With the rise in popularity of market-based responses to social policy challenges, the stewardship of quasi-markets or public service markets, is a key concern for governments worldwide. Debates about how to manage quasi-markets have focussed on high-level decision-making processes. However local actors, in particular street level bureaucrats, are a key part of the complex work of managing quasi-markets. We examine how street level bureaucrats act as local market stewards in a new quasi-market for disability care, the Australian National Disability Insurance scheme. We find that the street level bureaucrats, known as local area coordinators, act as shapers of local markets but that their contributions are informal and often restricted by formal structures and processes. For example, we found evidence that the use of key performance indicators can disrupt effective local stewardship efforts towards a procedural approach. We conclude that introducing principles of the polycentric governance approach can improve connections between local market knowledge holders and central decision-making agencies, thereby improving market stewardship and outcomes.