Based on more than 300 interviews in the UK, France, and Germany. We observe variation in contracted-out service providers. In France there is relatively little competition for contracts and only experiments in payment by results; here, service providers do not systematically cream and park. In Germany and the UK, where contracting is more competitive and results-oriented, creaming and parking practice varies. It is widespread at for-profit providers, but less so at nonprofits.
We identify two mechanisms through which marketization leads to creaming and parking. First is the rise of commercial providers, with work-first job-placement practices, underpinned by standardized, IT-intensive management control systems. Second is the decline of more holistic social-work approaches within nonprofit providers due to severe financial pressures from marketization and cuts. We conclude that these processes unleashed by marketization may be difficult to reverse due to these internal organizational practices within private contractors.
