The focus of this research was on the experiences of those using the PPP facility and its related contracted services to deliver services to their client community. The focus being on employees ('service providers') such as senior executives, managers, administrators, teachers, clinicians, prison wardens, as they service their client community, such as students, patients or prisoners. The research does not sample members of these client communities directly, rather it sought to investigate how the PPP facility and its related contracted services enable and contribute to the performance of service providers in servicing their client community.
In some PPP models, the service providers are public sector employees (for example, teachers and clinicians), in other models they are employed through the PPP consortium (for example, prison wardens).
From inception, a fundamental characteristic of the PPP model in Australia has been a commercial structure focusing on achieving defined service outcomes through appropriate allocation of risk, KPIs and payment mechanism. Conceptually, in the PPP model the capital asset is the enabler of the service outcomes that are measured and if successfully delivered are rewarded by government or users. The Australian and New Zealand PPP model in social infrastructure offer a particularly rich opportunity to assess the service provider experience of the services delivered, especially as PPP projects have been operating in Australia for 25 years.
This PPP environment enables a thorough assessment to be undertaken of the service provider's experience with mature PPPs that are in a "normalised" operational stage. As highlighted in the Authors' Note, service providers in social infrastructure, compared to economic infrastructure, are typically employed in the long term and on a full-time basis within the PPP facility. Moreover, given their professional interactions with their client community, these service providers are more likely to become committed, and in some cases emotionally attached, to the PPP facility and service provision. The research also investigated user satisfaction with PPP assets compared to traditionally procured facilities.
Recently, some social infrastructure portfolio leaders have been critical of PPPs for being too rigid in their contractual outcomes and this may have had an impact on PPP take-up in new projects. This research investigated such concerns with service providers, seeking to identify the source of such issues and what factors can be attributed to positive and poor user experiences.