Abstract
This talk (see Ferlie et al, 2010, Public Adminstration) will examine the role of managed networks (e.g. managed cancer networks) in the delivery of health services as an alternative to both hierarchy and market. Theoretically, it argues that networks are expecially useful under conditions of ‘wicked problems’. It then examines a set of eight managed networks in the NHS. Using three dimensions of effectiveness, it concludes progress has so far been limited. However the wicked problems argument is both pervasive and persuasive so that networks should be given more time to develop and a headlong tilt to policies based on quasi markets resisted.#
Biography of the speaker
Ewan Ferlie studied for a BA in Modern History and MSc in Social Research and Social Policy at University of Oxford. He then obtained a PhD in Social Policy at the University of Kent. He has held research jobs at the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of kent and then at the Centre for Corporate Strategy and Change at Warwick Business School. He was a Professor of Public Services Management at Imperial College Management School (1997-2003) where he was also founding director of the Centre for Public Services Organisations and School Director of Research. Between 2003 and 2008, he was Professor of Public Services Management and Head of the School of Management at Royal Holloway, University of London. He joined King’s College London in October 2008 as Professor of Public Srvices management and Head of the Department of Management. In 2008, he was elected as an Academician of the Learned Societies in the Social Sciences (AcSS).
Professor Ferlie has been appointed to the national commissioning board of the Naitonal Institute of Health Research (Service Delivery and Organisation) for a period of four years. The SDO programme aims to generate and promote the use of research evidence about improving services to increase the quality of care, ensure better patient outcomes and contribute to population health. With an annual budget of £12m a year, the SDO programme is a major stream of health management research.