Isomorphism and practice variation in municipalities, the implementation of the new Youth Act

Isomorphism and practice variation in municipalities,

the implementation of the new Youth Act

Master thesis

MSc Business Administration – Organizational & Management Control University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

Bjorn Heyda Student number: 2033070

20 June 2016

Thesis supervisor: dr. E.G. van de Mortel Co-assessor: prof. dr. D.M. Swagerman

1 Abstract

This research studies the presence of isomorphic pressures and practice variation in the context of the decentralization of the Dutch youth welfare system. While isomorphism is widely studied, not enough effort has been put into explaining practice variation. Therefore, it is not clear how these concepts

work at the same time. This research has made use of theory development through the qualitative method of conducting semi-structured interviews. These interviews were held with both policy makers

and social workers to obtain a broad view of the transition. Evidence was found which suggests the presence of isomorphic pressures to varying degrees. Additionally, practice variation was found through differences between municipalities. However, it was not clear whether these differences are

the result of colliding institutional logics as the theory suggest. Ultimately, the presence of homogeneity and practice variation were found to influence the goal set under the implementation of

the new Youth Act.

Inhoudsopgave

1. Introduction ... 3

1.1 Background ... 3

1.2 Research question ... 4

1.3 Contribution ... 5

1.4 Outline of the research... 6

2. Overview of the implementation ... 7

2.1 Chronological overview of the new Youth Act ... 7

2.2 Which changes have been made? ... 9

2.3 Custom approach ... 10

2.4 Roles within a municipality ... 11

3. Theoretical background ... 13

3.1 Institutional theory ... 13

3.2 Isomorphism ... 15

3.3 Practice variation ... 16

3.4 Goals of the new Youth Act ... 17

3.5 Conceptual model ... 18

4. Research method ... 20

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4.2 Data collection... 21

5. Results ... 24

5.1 Isomorphism ... 24

5.2 Practice variation ... 26

5.3 Similarities and differences between municipalities ... 27

5.4 Goals of the new Youth Act ... 29

5.5 Relationships among concepts ... 31

5.6 Opinions on the decentralisation ... 33

6. Conclusion ... 34

6.1 Discussion of the results ... 34

6.2 Limitations and further research ... 35

References ... 37

References to academic literature ... 37

Online references... 39

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

The concept of a country as a welfare state is very common in the developed world and it discusses how the government is responsible for the well-being of all its citizens. A particularly important group in this concept are the youth, who can be quite vulnerable. In the Netherlands, the care for this group is arranged in the youth welfare system, which has undergone large changes recently. As of January 1st, 2015, the new Youth Act has officially replaced the Youth Care Act which dates back to 2005. Although significant work was done to create a youth welfare system which could deliver care to a high standard, these efforts were deemed insufficient. The old system was very complex due to the many different groups that were involved. This ultimately lead to problems such as high costs, people not receiving the necessary care quickly enough and the fact that innovation was an excessively difficult process (NYI, 2014).

According to the Dutch government, the most efficient way to deal with these problems would be to create a simpler system. Based on the examples of the Nordic countries (Vink, 2012) a

decentralisation was proposed through which the responsibility would move from five different parties to one, the municipalities (Rijksoverheid, 2014). The municipalities took over all responsibilities concerning child welfare and became responsible for prevention, universal care and specialised care. A patient, when necessary, will still be moved to an organization focusing on specialised care, but the municipality now becomes responsible for purchasing and directing this care.

This transition is interesting to research due to a number of different reasons. Firstly, it is one of the largest cases of decentralisation that has been done in the Netherlands, as it is combined with two other changes. Secondly, the group of youth which is affected by these changes is fairly large, as there are almost a quarter of a million adolescents who rely on some form of care within this welfare system. Additionally, this group contains vulnerable children who depend on care and should not suffer from the transitional period. Last but not least, the national government plans to use this

decentralisation not only to increase the quality of the care that is provided, it also wants to cut costs in the process. This should be accomplished by moving to a situation where there is one person who directs all care for a certain family. By doing this, it becomes possible to create a solution that has the best fit with the actual problems. In turn, this should lead to a lowered usage of strong medicines and specialised services.

In a decentralisation, there is a newfound degree of freedom in how organizations can structure their activities. On an organizational level it is discussed in the article by Cruz, Major and Scapens (2009), who argue that practice variation is possible through the concept of loose coupling. Allowing

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create a system that is distinct from the global system, yet still responds to other systems. The Dutch government creates a similar situation wherein the rules that were set at the national level have to be followed while still allowing room for municipalities to adapt to their local needs.

Practice variation may give an insight in how organizations behave differently, but there are also large similarities between organizations. This is discussed by DiMaggio and Powell(1983), who argue that one of the important characteristics of institutional theory is that it is better at explaining homogeneity that it is in explaining diversity. The most important theory on the fact that many organizations behave similarly is the theory on isomorphism. Isomorphism "captures the extent to which the organizational designs adopted within organizational fields tend toward increasing homogeneity over time" (Roberts and Greenwood, 1997: 354). Through three mechanisms, companies strive to increase their legitimacy, by listening to external pressures of parties an organization depends on, through the copying of other organizations and by listening to professional groups. Due to the fact that organizations in similar sectors face similar pressures, they often change in similar ways.

However, if isomorphism predicts that organizations will become increasingly similar, how can we explain change and organizations that are distinct (Leblebici et al. 1991)? The view of Cruz et al. (2009) and Lounsbury (2007), is that competing logics cause practice variation. Institutional logics are a broad set of practices, beliefs, values and rules (Thornton, 2004). When these logics collide, they cause can cause change, which leads to practice variation. They discuss this on the basis of cases in which this was apparent. Lounsbury discusses in a later research that he hopes to open the views on neoinstitutional theory "by highlighting some new directions in neoinstitutional research away from the study of isomorphism and towards an understanding of organizational heterogeneity" (2008:358). This research will attempt to do so, while still maintaining the interesting and relevant views that isomorphism offers.

These concepts of practice variation and homogeneity are very interesting in the implementation of the new Youth Act. After all, if all organizations would behave in the same way, this would significantly limit the value of decentralisation. However, homogeneity can also mean that organizations adopt efficient solutions. There is too little academic literature available on how these forces work at the same time or perhaps collide with each other.

1.2 Research question

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(2008) and focuses on the role of isomorphism and the tension this creates with the practice variation that should occur. Therefore, the main question will be:

What influence does the presence of practice variation and isomorphism have on the ability to reach the goals that were set for the implementation of the new Youth Act?

Additionally, the following sub-questions were formed to create an in-depth understanding of the concepts and the underlying information:

 What forms of isomorphism are present in the case of the implementation of the new Youth Act?

 How do the forms of isomorphism rank relatively to each other?

 What are the differences between the institutional logics within parties, if any exist?

 To what extent do the municipalities demonstrate practice variation in terms of the structure they have, the solutions they offer and the way they work?

 To what extent does practice variation influence the goals of the new Youth Act?

 To what extent does heterogeneity influence the goals of the new Youth Act?

 How do the people in the youth welfare system experience the changes under the new Youth Act?

To answer these questions, both policy makers and social workers will be interviewed. This should offer a wide set of perspectives. Social workers work directly with the youth and through this, they know a lot about the care side of the new Youth Act. On the other hand, policy makers work on a level between the social workers and the politicians. The policy makers within municipalities have a large influence on how everything is arranged and through this they have more knowledge on an

organizational level. It is possible to reach a wider set of conclusions by obtaining both the more individual focused information as well as how the municipality works. This research will not focus on the political side of the implementation of the new Youth Act

1.3 Contribution

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especially by contrasting it to isomorphic pressures. This may therefore also lead to a better understanding on the topic of isomorphism.

Additionally, the practical relevance of this research lies in the fact that it thoroughly investigates the new Youth Act, to see whether the set goals are reached. Due to the fact that this is one of the main goals of the reformation of the youth welfare system in the Netherlands, it is interesting to see if custom approaches are present. Additionally, it will research whether municipalities can increase the efficiency of the youth welfare system. This may not offer definitive conclusions as the transition in Denmark showed that it takes a long time before this occurs (Vink, 2012). Still it should be possible to see whether there are at least certain steps that are taken which lead to efficiency. Lastly, is there in fact a better cooperation between different parties in the welfare system? Should these three

improvements not be visible, it will be difficult to label the new Youth Act as a success at the moment. By contrasting this with the isomorphic pressures on the municipalities, this research offers an

increased insight into how organizations adapt. Additionally, it may offer municipalities that are still struggling with this implementation some tools to increase the quality of the services that they offer. Finally, it may also offer insights to managers in other decentralisations where a similar tension between isomorphism and practice variation exists.

1.4 Outline of the research

This report will be continued in chapter 2 with an overview of the lengthy process of the

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2. Overview of the implementation

This section of the thesis will outline the relevant information concerning the changes made to the Dutch youth welfare system by means of the new Youth Act. This will be done in four steps. First, a chronological overview will be given of which changes and decisions were made throughout the process. This will make clear how this process was managed by the national government. Second, there will be a section which discusses what has changed, by giving a comparison of the situation before and after January 1st, 2015. Additionally, I will discuss what is meant by the 'custom approach' that is desired, as this is perhaps a more difficult concept to grasp than the other goals. Lastly, there will be some discussion on the different roles that people have within municipalities. Throughout these sections there will also be a focus on how the (proposed) changes were viewed by political parties, municipalities and professional groups.

2.1 Chronological overview of the new Youth Act

As with many difficult changes that the government makes, the process towards implementing the new Youth Act has taken several years. The current situation is a result from multiple changes that stem from a motion that was passed in the Dutch Senate in 2004 (Voordejeugd, 2014). In the motion Soutendijk-Van Appeldoorn, the Senate was asked to report on efforts to streamline the youth care system within two years. In an evaluation of the Dutch child welfare system in 2009, it was reported that recent changes were, although beneficial, not sufficient in increasing the quality of the care that was provided (Baecke et al., 2009). The current system was deemed too complicated and riddled with bureaucracy which resulted in high costs. Therefore, decentralisation was proposed in a report in 2010 (Pierre Heijnen, 2010) that laid the groundwork for the changes in 2015 (Voordejeugd, 2014).

The inspiration behind this decentralisation lies in similar efforts in Scandinavian countries. An influence that is given by the Netherlands Youth Institute is the child welfare system in Denmark, which was implemented in 2007. The Danish system was lauded after a visit by government officials and people working within the child welfare sector. The implementation in Denmark took some time but after five years they started seeing increasingly more cases which were handled better than before. Examples are faster help, solutions that were more in line with the problem, more focus on prevention and less usage of intense care, which all led to lower costs (Vink, 2012). Similar success stories are given by people who visited Finland (Hilverdink, 2012 and Berg - le Clercq, 2013).

These positive experiences in other countries increased the interest in the Netherlands to decentralise child welfare towards the local municipalities. A proposition was delivered to the Dutch House of Representatives in 2012. The new Youth Act passed the House of Representatives in 2013 and the Senate in 2014, and thus the law was enacted. Starting on January 1st, 2015, financial and

administrative responsibilities concerning youth welfare would be decentralised towards

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written plan before the 31st of October 2014. This plan discussed how everything would be arranged within their municipality on January 1st.

However, recently there have also been some negative views on the implementation of the new Youth Act. In 2013, the Dutch union FNV performed a survey under their members who work in the child welfare sector, and they were worried that the proposed changes might come too soon. This would come at the expense of the youth that relies on this care and who are, as a result, very vulnerable (FNV, 2013). Just after the implementation date of January 1st, 2015, an article in the Dutch

newspaper 'de Volkskrant' (Stoffelen, 2015) discussed the previously lauded youth welfare system in Denmark and arrived to the conclusion that it was still facing a lot of problems, even eight years later. Social workers were pressured by municipalities to choose the cheapest forms of care at the cost of quality and there are even examples of families moving to a different municipality because the provided care is better there. This shows that there are indeed significant differences in how each municipality works, but these differences are not always beneficial.

After the first quarter of 2015, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) released their report on the status of the implementation at that moment. They concluded that although there were some problems, the transition was mainly considered as smooth and positive by the municipalities (VNG, 2015). In the latest rapport of the ombudsman who is in charge of representing the Dutch youth, the transition was also considered as moving in the right direction. Although there were still major problems, the families were happy with the quality and the continuity of the care they received (Kinderombudsman, 2016).

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There is some overlap between these goals as a tailor-made solution should have a larger focus on prevention instead of specialised care, which should save money. However, since these are the main pillars this research will look into these topics.

2.2 Which changes have been made?

Before the changes in 2015, the structure of the youth welfare system in the Netherlands was more complicated. There were three layers, which focused on universal care which is available for

everybody, preventive services which focused on detecting problems at a early stage and intervening and as a last step, children were referred to specialised care according to their needs. There were five major parties involved in the system and every group had different tasks and responsibilities. Each group used to operate on one or multiple of these levels. These five groups are, in descending order of size (Rijksoverheid, 2014):

 Regional governments, who are responsible for child protection and youth probation;

 AWBZ, which concerns care for children with mental disabilities who have received care for more a year;

 Zvw, which concerns all mental healthcare for youth before they fall under the AWBZ after a year. Both the tasks under the Zvw as well as the AWBZ are performed by the jeugd-ggz, the organisations responsible for mental healthcare for the youth in the Netherlands;

 Municipalities, who are responsible for prevention, youth development and upbringing;

 National government, who are responsible for all 'closed care' institutions, where children are forced to stay;

As mentioned in the previous section, the Dutch child welfare system was not always performing as desired. More specifically, there were a number problems that were prevalent and these were to be fixed by the new Youth Act. These problems were (NYI, 2014):

 There wasn't a sufficient balance between different types of care in terms of funding and attention;

 The fragmentised state of the welfare system made it hard to work in and improvements were hard to implement;

 Children did not receive care quickly, they were often referred from organization to organization as it was unclear where they had to go for help;

 The costs kept rising, demand for specialised care rose by ten percent every year;

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As of 2015, all responsibilities and tasks in the youth welfare system moved towards the

municipalities. This put a lot of stress on the municipalities who previously only had ten percent of the responsibilities in the old system (Rijksoverheid, 2014).

The main goal of the changes is to have a larger focus on prevention instead of referring to a specialist, which is expensive. This is described as a focus on 'well-being' instead of 'well-becoming'. This is done under the slogan 'one family, one plan, one director', which moves away from the old situation where a family would be in contact with multiple parties who all behave individually. Instead there is now one party, working for the municipality, which directs all the care that is necessary in a family towards separate organizations. One proposed way to do this is through a generalist working for the municipality(Hilverdink, 2013). A generalist should have a wide set of knowledge and talks to the families to determine a set of actions. This should lead to less bureaucracy and quicker solutions. To simplify this transition a few things have been done, most notably are the decisions that the regional governments still had some responsibilities in 2015 which are now also moved to municipalities in 2016. Additionally, there has been cooperation, to a certain extent, between municipalities. This can, for example, be seen in the written plan that the municipality of Geertruidenberg has published in 2014 (Gemeente Geertruidenberg, 2014), which, among other things, details how they work together with eight different municipalities in their region. Together, they address certain shared values which shape their policy, and they purchase the specialised care as a group to gain financial benefits.

2.3 Custom approach

In the statements that were issued and in the debate that was held, one of the important topics was the concept of 'maatwerk' or the ability to create a custom approach based on the circumstances in the local environment. Since this is also one of the most important topics in this research, this section will provide additional information on this topic. What is this custom approach? How is it discussed? And are there examples of it?

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The ability of municipalities to create a custom approach can also be seen in some of the initiatives that have arisen recently. Some examples of initiatives are offered on the Dutch site of the NYI (2015), these include:

 In Hengelo, special coaches have been directly assigned to families, which has a positive influence on the families, they feel more like they are in control of the situation.

 In Arnhem, there is a program that helps the youth that should be at work or in school, but aren't. They are immediately offered coaching and the program has a high success rate.

 In Amsterdam, a digital platform was made to allow for faster contact between social workers and families. Families can ask a question and receive help from one of forty specialists. Overall, it is possible to see different options for creating a custom approach. In the following theory section we will link this with the academic literature that is available.

2.4 Roles within a municipality

Since this research focuses on the municipality's role within the new Youth Act, it is also important to make clear which different roles people play. This section will briefly discuss which tasks there are within the youth welfare system. Within the methodology section this will be build upon and argumentation will be given concerning the reasons for picking specific people that are to be interviewed. The roles that will be discussed are the social workers, policy makers and both the municipal council and the executive board of the municipalities.

2.4.1 Social workers

As was discussed earlier, the main source of inspiration for this decentralisation was that similar efforts were made in Nordic countries. One group within those transitions which has received significant interest in the Netherlands is the social worker, as can be seen in the rapport that was written for the NYI (Berg-le Clerq et al., 2013). This rapport looks at the Nordic countries and

attempts to give advice to Dutch municipalities on the central role of the social worker in those welfare systems. A profile is sketched of educated employees which are often specialised on the topic of youth or families with a wide set of responsibilities. These social workers work closely with the families and direct the care that families receive. In the Netherlands these social workers often work in

neighbourhood teams, whilst this isn't that common in Nordic countries according to Berg-le Clerq et al. (2013).

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The role of policy makers is completely different. The term policy makers is very broad and can refer to anyone in a function where they are responsible for setting the policy, or plan, of organizations. This includes businesses and governments, but within this research the focus lies on policy makers within municipalities who are responsible for youth welfare. Policy makers are not directly responsible for providing care, but talk to the people who are and discuss this within the municipality to create a course of action. This means that policy makers are largely responsible for how youth welfare is structured in municipalities.

2.4.3 Municipal council

The municipal council refers to the group of people who control the board of the municipality. Members of the municipal council are chosen once every four years, they are members of a political party who they represent in the council. This means that there is a difference between municipalities in terms due to the political views of the inhabitants.

2.4.4 Executive board

The executive board of the municipalities is called the 'college of mayor and alderman' in the

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3. Theoretical background

Within this section, the focus will move towards the academic literature as opposed to a practical background. Additionally, propositions will be formed which are the basis of the interviews that will be taken. The main theoretical concepts and their foundations will be discussed. First, a brief overview of institutional theory will be given, to see both the current state of this field as well as how theories have developed over the years. Based on this, the focus will sharpen towards two main topics. First, the topic of isomorphism will be discussed. Secondly, practice variation will be discussed.

Additionally, the goals of the new Youth Act are discussed to see how they relate to the concepts within academic literature. Lastly, a conceptual model will be presented to visualize the concepts and their relationships with each other.

3.1 Institutional theory

Institutional theory can be defined as a theory that “demonstrates how non-choice behaviors can occur and persist, through the exercise of habit, convention, convenience, or social obligation” (Oliver, 1991: 151). The concepts discussed in this research fall under this large umbrella of institutionalism. Institutional theory suggests that decisions are not always the outcome of merely rational thinking. Instead, there are institutions which subconsciously govern how we think and act (Scott, 1995). There are different views conserning institutional theory, as discussed by Scott: “the beginning of wisdom in approaching institutional theory is to recognize at the outset that there is not one but several variants.” (1987: 493). The most recognized theories will be discussed briefly to gain an understanding on what the different views are when it comes to this topic. The three that will be discussed are Old Institutional Economics (OIE), New Institutional Economics (NIE) and New Institutional Sociology (NIS).

3.1.1 Old Institutional Economics

The theory of OIE is largely based on the work of Thorstein Veblen (Burns and Scapens, 2000), which dates back to the ninetieth century. In his work Veblen discusses the institutions that are in place and offer stability in life’s processes. He compares economics with the human gene and sees that while it shows evolution over time, it largely remains the same (Veblen, 1898). Perhaps the clearest

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the reproduction of these actions, change eventually occurs in the institutions (Burns and Scapens, 2000). This is a long process that explains how change can happen through stability, which is similar to the argument of Veblen.

3.1.2 New Institutional Economics

Even within the theory of NIE, there are different views on what the underlying concepts are. However, Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) has a significant influence on this model. TCT is another theory that tries to explain why certain organizational designs exist (Williamson, 1992). According to Shelanski & Klein (1994), TCT answers this question with the term comparative efficiency.

Organizations realize that they are not operating efficiently enough, therefore they try to search for a design that has a high level of efficiency for their organization. By doing this, they are able to lower their transaction costs. Different designs are considered and eventually one is adopted. Designs that are more efficient than others work well, while inefficient designs fail. This leads to a process akin to evolution wherein the strong designs survive. However, according to Roberts and Greenwood (2007), NIE fails to discuss how there are inefficient designs which are still functioning.

3.1.3 New Institutional Sociology

NIS as a theory is largely focused on the external influences on companies and individuals which shape their actions (Tsamenyi, Cullen and González, 2006). These external influences can come from different sources. Companies strive to gain legitimacy and do so by adapting to these external

influences. An example of this process can be seen in the research of Tsamenyi et al. (2006), who discuss how the Spanish government made changes to the legislation concerning the electricity sector. Organizations in turn adapted to these changes and restructured their operations. Since many

organizations in the same sectors face similar external pressures, they often adopt to these pressures in similar ways. This is referred to as isomorphism. The concept of isomorphism will be discussed in greater detail in section 3.2 as it is one of the most important concepts in this research.

3.1.4 Moving beyond distinct theories

There are also people who combine these theories to create a better understanding of what is happening. Roberts and Greenwood (2007) combine NIS and NIE in a constrained-efficiency framework. They argue that these views can complement each other instead of being opposing. Through this argument, they believe that a person will always try to make a decision that leads to high efficiency, but is not always able to do so due to pressures and constraints that they face. Within this model there are two types of influences, namely cognitive constraints and the institutional

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efficiency. Roberts and Greenwood (2007) offer two types of influences that the institutional environment has on decision making. Preconscious constraints deal with options that were not even thought of in the first place, while postconscious constraints deal with options that were thought of but cannot be implemented for different reasons.

3.2 Isomorphism

The concept of institutional isomorphism relates to changes in practices in organizations. As mentioned earlier, these changes are the result of external pressures and are made to increase the legitimacy of the organizations. There are three mechanisms of isomorphism by which change occurs, coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). By using these

mechanisms, organizations can increase their legitimacy towards external parties. Deephouse (1996) finds significant results for this to be true no matter the size of the organization in his research in the banking sector. Ultimately, isomorphism leads to an increased legitimacy from for example regulators and the media.

Coercive isomorphism relates to changes made under the pressures of stakeholders that the organization depends on. This is a wide set of parties ranging from the government, to financers, customers or even society as a whole. An example of coercive isomorphism in the implementation of the new Youth Act are the rules that are in place which the municipalities have to follow. The law concerning the new Youth Act discusses what municipalities exactly have to do. Additionally, municipalities also enter contracts with providers of specialised care which can lead to certain contractual responsibilities. The last example is the fact that the society as a whole also has an influence as bad publicity will influence behaviour of organizations, perhaps even more so in municipalities as politicians are also influenced by societal opinions.

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Normative isomorphism relates to changes made under the pressures of professional groups. An example of normative isomorphism in the implementation of the new Youth Act is the strong presence of professional groups that focus on care and welfare. In chapter 2, the responses from certain parties were discussed. We have seen reports by the VNG and the NYI, who both have a lot of swaying power. The statement made by the Dutch union FNV which addressed concerns from people working within the youth welfare system about the implementation and possible problems. Due to the

importance of youth welfare, these groups might have a serious influence.

According to NIS, isomorphism will eventually lead to a large amount of homogeneity. Through the three mechanisms, organizations will implement changes which are influenced by external influences that are relevant to the entire sector and can additionally copy each other in their quest towards legitimacy. This will lead to the fact that the organizations in a sector will adapt in similar ways (DiMaggio and Powell, 1988).

This leads to the following proposition, which is based on the provided literature on isomorphism. We have seen in the literature that isomorphism relates to organizations adapting to external pressures to attain legitimacy. Due to the fact that similar organizations face similar pressures, they adapt in similar ways. This is largely accepted in the existing literature, but will be researched to gain conclusions which are related to the tensions between isomorphism and practice variation. Additionally, by researching this it should become clear which external pressures are specifically important in this particular setting.

Proposition 1: The presence of external pressures causes an increase in homogeneity between organizations.

3.3 Practice variation

Ultimately, institutional theories are better in explaining uniformity rather than explaining diversity (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). Leblebici et al. (1991) discuss this and wonder how new practices come into place. One interesting theory for this research is offered by Cruz et al. (2009), by again combining three different theories. This time, NIS and OIE are combined and institutional logics are added to this theory. Institutional logics are discussed by Hyvonen et al. (2009) who see it as a broad set of practices, beliefs, values and rules, as derived from the research by Thornton (2004). Different institutional logics can collide with each other and cause change in the process.

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(1990) in the form of loose coupling. A loosely coupled system is distinct from, yet responds to others. According to Cruz et al. (2009) it is very hard to implement a global system that offers no room for practice variation on a local level.

In a way, this can be compared to the changes made under the new Youth Act. In this case, there may be colliding institutional logics. The national government wants things to be done in one way, and they create laws and policies to make sure these things get done in the way they should be done.

Meanwhile, the municipalities respond to the local circumstances and how they should adapt to these circumstances. This is where there is conflict, not every municipality wants to do things a certain way. This leads to a situation where municipalities are allowed to create distinct systems, yet have to adhere to a certain set of rules which are still dictated by the national government. Therefore, this concept of practice variation might be able to show us how municipalities respond on a local level. The concept of loose coupling will receive no further attention in this research as it does not fit within its scope, however it is important to note that a decentralisation can be seen as allowing for loose coupling. Compared to isomorphism, practice variation is a phenomenon which has gained more traction in recent times. It can be traced back to articles from Meyer and Rowan (1977) and Meyer and Scott (1983) who argued that there was also a significant amount of heterogeneity, differences between organizations. According to Lounsbury (2008), the concept of heterogeneity, or practice variation, has not been studied to the extent as it should have been.

Based on this research, the following additional proposition was developed. The second proposition focuses on the literature that is available on practice variation, which discusses that institutional logics lead to practice variation.

Proposition 2: Conflicting institutional logics lead to practice variation.

3.4 Goals of the new Youth Act

As was discussed in the practical background, there are three main goals of the decentralisation under the new Youth Act. These goals will also be discussed briefly in this section to gain an understanding of how they are seen within this research.

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for this research, also look at what happens after care is provided. The problem with both concepts is that determining them is a long process which does not fit within the scope of this research.

Additionally, we have seen that in Denmark, it took 5 year before the costs started to decrease (Vink, 2012). This makes it very difficult to properly research it and conclusions that are made in this research could become outdated quickly. Therefore, this research will focus on the ability to increase efficiency instead of efficiency itself. It will research whether the new Youth Act can lead to lowered costs over a longer period.

The second goal was to allow for the ability to create custom approaches, or in different words tailor made solutions. This is more of a practical rather than an academic concept in this research. It is important to note that the custom approach relates to the individual level, to families who receive care in the way that fits with their needs. On the other hand, practice variation relates to organizational level and differences between organizations. The concept will therefore be used as discussed by the NYI (2014), as care adapted to local and individual needs.

The third goal that was identified is increased cooperation between the professionals within the youth welfare system. This is done by allowing for more flexibility in terms of budgeting and reducing bureaucracy.

Since there is no existing research on whether practice variation and isomorphism contribute to the ability to reach these goals or whether they are detrimental to it, the propositions will focus on these influences. It will be important to find out whether there is an effect and whether it is a positive or negative effect. Therefore, the following two propositions were developed to research this. Due to the fact that the relation is not clear, the propositions focus on 'the influence' instead of a positive or negative impact.

Proposition 3: Practice variation influences the ability of the municipalities to achieve the goals that are present in the new Youth Act.

Proposition 4: Homogeneity influences the ability of the municipalities to achieve the goals that are present in the new Youth Act.

3.5 Conceptual model

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variation. Lastly, homogeneity and practice variation will be discussed in relation to the goals of the new Youth Act. Whether this relationship is positive or negative is unclear. Additionally, it is also unclear which concept will have the largest influence, homogeneity or practice variation.

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4. Research method

In this section, the research method that was employed will be discussed. This is done to increase the controllability of the study, an overview of the steps taken allow other academics to determine its effectiveness. First, the research plan will be discussed to see the larger overarching themes of how this research has been done. Additionally, there will be a focus on the way that data was collected. Throughout these sections, there will also be a focus on validity and reliability. A study is deemed reliable when its results can be replicated while obtaining the same results (Yin, 2003). On the other hand, validity concerns whether the employed methodology is used correctly. A good methodology leads to valid results (van Aken, Berends and van der Bij, 2012).

4.1 Research plan

To determine the correct research methodology, it is important to look at the goal of the research. This research attempts to answer the question: "What influence does the presence of practice variation and isomorphism have on the ability to reach the goals that were set for the implementation of the new Youth Act?". There is a lack of understanding on the concept of practice variation, specifically the relationship between practice variation and isomorphic pressures.

Due to the goal to add knowledge to an existing field of research, the most logical step is to employ the usage of theory development. In the implementation of the new Youth Act the move towards decentralisation can be seen as a call for practice variation, municipalities are allowed to make their own policy, to a certain extent. However, there are also isomorphic pressures on municipalities. This problem has not received significant attention in the current academic literature. Therefore, there is no real theory to test and the focus should lie on understanding the concepts and what happens when there is a tension between them (Eisenhardt, 1989).

More specifically, this research used a qualitative method to answer this question. This provides a strong understanding of the underlying processes and could allow future research to built upon this research to further add to the theory.

The primary data for this research comes from semi-structured interviews, which were conducted within municipalities. An interview guide was developed from scratch based on the concepts that were found in the literature review and the practical background. Since there is a strong practical component in this research, existing questions were not applicable in these circumstances. The interview questions build upon these concepts, namely external pressures, homogeneity, practice variation and the ability to reach the goals that were set for the new Youth Act. Multiple questions will be used per concept and these questions will relate directly to the concept or concepts. By performing semi-structured

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interviews while still allowing the researcher to probe in interesting topics along the way (Myers, 2013).

Additionally, secondary data was used when applicable. This secondary data consists of documents and other correspondence that was provided by municipalities concerning the implementation of the new Youth Act.

The interviews were performed in Dutch as it is the native language of the interviewees. Therefore, the questions, which can be found in Appendix A, are also written in Dutch. These interviews and

documents were subsequently be transcribed and analyzed. Interesting results have been translated into English, with the goal of appealing to a wider audience.

4.2 Data collection

Since the research focuses on the new Youth Act, the interviews will be conducted in municipalities. Based on research, which can be found in the practical background, two groups were identified as most interesting to be interviewed. Firstly, the policy makers who work for the municipalities and create policies related to youth welfare. These policy makers are more knowledgeable about the structure in which care is organized and the direction that they plan to take. On the other hand, social workers will offer a different view as they are directly working with families. Compared to for

example a physician, social workers are on the frontline and have a wider set of knowledge. Due to the desire to compare between both groups, the policy makers will be contacted first and will be asked to help reach a social worker. By interviewing both groups, it becomes possible to gain an understanding of the side which is more focused on management and additionally it becomes possible to see the view of the practitioners. Additionally, since the focus lies on the municipalities and how they adapt to the new Youth Act, the conclusions will be stronger if the interviewees work for or with the municipalities as opposed to people working in specialised care.

The goal is to conduct ten interviews. More would be ideal, but due to the time constraints reasonable goals have to be set. Both groups of employees will receive relatively the same amount of attention, therefore the goal is to conduct five interviews with social workers and five with policy makers. This should allow for a increased understanding of both groups.

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there may be some conclusions that will be apparent in one municipality, while they are non-existent in another. An example could be that large cities cooperate less, due to the fact that they are large enough to work on their own. Meanwhile, the smaller municipalities will have a smaller budget, forcing them to cooperate on certain issues. While there may be some possible differences that can be predicted based on news, articles and correspondence by the municipalities, it will be difficult to accurately find these differences. Since the nature of this research lies in the theory development method, it will not make sense to put a large emphasis on these differences a priori. Therefore, it is more important to interview within different municipalities to gain a more complete understanding of reality. Should interesting differences arise in this research, they may be the topic of further study. Therefore, the municipalities that will be interviewed differ on certain characteristics, the main variable being the amount of inhabitants they have. The goal is to interview some large-sized

municipalities, some small and some of moderate size. Additionally, there will be some municipalities from one region who cooperate with each other, and some who don't cooperate with others in the sample.

4.2.2 Who were interviewed?

Ultimately, there were some aspects of the planned data collection that were hard to achieve in practice. This ultimately led to a sample of seven policy makers and three social workers. In general, even though the goal of ten interviews has eventually been reached, it was not particularly easy to find people who wanted to be interviewed. The most frequent reasons for this were time constraints, municipalities already working with other researchers and a large amount of people who did not respond at all. Based on the fact that around fifty policy makers were contacted, this leads to a response rate of approximately one in seven. This means that there may be a non-response bias. An overview of the sample will be presented below, in table 1, which is sorted on the amount of inhabitants of the municipality as derived from the CBS. Within this sample, the municipality of De Wolden has a complicated structure, which is important to understand as it influences the results of the interview. De Wolden is engaged in a strong cooperation with the municipality of Hoogeveen on a different level than any other cooperation within this sample. Combined, they have almost 80,000 inhabitants. Therefore, some aspects of the interview focused on an individual municipality, whereas other aspects were discussed in the context of a cooperation. This will become more evident in the results section.

Municipality Inhabitants Region Function of interviewee

Staphorst 16,590 Overijssel Policy maker

De Wolden* 23,703 Drenthe Policy maker

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Hof van Twente 34,890 Overijssel Policy maker

Rijssen-Holten 37,896 Overijssel Policy maker

Social worker for the municipality

Berkelland 44,357 Gelderland Policy maker

Social worker for the municipality

Apeldoorn 159,249 Gelderland Policy maker

School social worker *The municipality of Hoogeveen has 55,287 inhabitants, giving a combined number of 78,990 Table 1: Overview of conducted interviews

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5. Results

In this section, the results from the interviews will be presented. The interviews were conducted in six different municipalities with seven policy makers and three social worker. The order of the results section is structured according to the order of the conceptual model. First, the isomorphic pressures will be discussed, this will be followed by the results on conflicting institutional logics. Using these insights, the focus will shift towards the similarities and differences between municipalities.

Additionally, the goals of the new Youth Act will be discussed and whether there are any relationships that were found between the goals and the concepts of homogeneity and practice variation. Lastly, an overview will be given of the opinions of the respondents on the new Youth Act. Direct quotes will be used to provide a better understanding of the underlying reasoning.

5.1 Isomorphism

To check whether there was a strong form of coercive isomorphism, several questions were asked concerning a certain degree of freedom or leniency in the regulations of the new Youth Act. This was done to obtain an overview of the most important part of coercive isomorphism, the pressure from the national government to do things in a certain way. The exact questions that were asked can be found in Appendix A.

The interviewees do not experience the regulation of the new Youth Act as being strict. Seven people experience a moderate freedom, while three persons even see a lot of freedom in the regulations to do things in their own way. Although regulation and freedom contradict each other, there appears to be a well-thought-out move towards less regulation to provide freedom. This is discussed by the policy maker in Apeldoorn: "Especially with the decentralisations, you get a lot of opportunities there to make sure you organize it in the right way for your citizens". Some people saw this as integral in a decentralisation, as it offers a chance to meet the demands of the local setting. The policy maker in Rijssen-Holten noted that this freedom helps them: "it is your local choice, and I think this is good because you can make it fit with your municipality".

[25] 5.1.2 Normative isomorphism

To find out what the role of professional organizations is in the youth welfare system, the respondents were asked questions about three specific groups, the VNG, which is a association of municipalities, the NYI, who give advice about youth welfare, and the ombudsman for children. The questions focused on whether the respondent knew these parties, knew their advice and whether they did something with this advice. All parties were familiar with these groups, although this varied in terms of the degree of familiarity.

Where the respondents also differed was in to what extent they made use of the advice and knowledge that was offered by these groups. While there are five policy makers who say that they are strongly influenced by these groups and one who sees a moderate influence, there is also one who does not feel influenced by these groups. The social workers are even more divided, with one answer in every group. The social worker in Berkelland says there is no real influence of these groups, "not in my daily functioning". This appears to be due to the fact that they have to actively look for the information that can help them, and this is time that can be better spend doing other things.

However, the most interviewees do see an influence, to a different extent. The municipality of Rijssen-Holten has used the local ordinance of the VNG as a blueprint for their own version. Another person notes that they are happy with the help from these organizations, and there appears to be an especially large focus on the rapports that are offered. These are used by multiple respondents as checks, to see whether they are doing things right, whether there are things that they need to change and they are especially focused on problems that they already spotted on their own and how to deal with these problems. The policy maker in Duiven says that they offer "many recommendations, on which improvement is possible, that is helpful to know".

Therefore, it seems as though there is a normative pressure from the professional groups. This pressure is not very strong, but especially the policy makers often mention they try to get as much as possible from the advices of these groups.

5.1.3 Mimetic isomorphism

To check for mimetic isomorphism, several questions were asked to see whether interviewees experienced uncertainty and hoe they dealt with this. Additionally, it was also researched to what extent they cooperate with other municipalities. While all municipalities have to work together by law as they have to purchase their specialised care as a region, this question focuses more on whether they go above and beyond and discuss policy and practice on a regional level.

Whereas for-profit organizations may be wary to discuss their strengths and weaknesses with

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cooperation between municipalities, with only two people who do not give a positive answer and two people who are moderately positive. The negative answers stem from a social workers while the moderately positive answers are from a social worker and the policy maker for Apeldoorn, who notes that they try to do this and will attempt to increase cooperation in the future. However, the

municipality of Apeldoorn is by far the largest in their region, and this means that there are a lot of differences between the municipalities. Additionally, it can be difficult enough to get everybody to agree with something in their own municipality, let alone doing so within a region.

One of the key concepts in mimetic isomorphism is how organizations deal with uncertainty. There appears to be a large number of topics on which people experience a certain degree of uncertainty, ranging from the vision of the municipal council, to practical matters, such as limited influence on specialised care and uncertainty on whether they will cope with extra budget cuts. When asked how they deal with this, the respondents sometimes noted that cooperation and discussion between

municipalities was important. Some examples of this can be seen in quotes such as "It is very complex and sometimes it is useful to have contact with colleagues in the region" from a policy maker in Rijssen-Holten and in De Wolden they "could not have organised all of this by ourselves, we are too small for that. That is why we work together".

This is a bit different from the exact description in the theory where organizations face uncertainty and copy others. Here, the main response seems to be to discuss it with other municipalities. Therefore, it may be possible that cooperation and discussion between municipalities are means through which the municipalities copy each other. This may signal that there is a presence of mimetic isomorphism.

5.2 Practice variation

5.2.1 Conflicting institutional logics

To see whether there are conflicting institutional logics between the municipality and another party, several potentially interesting parties were identified. These include the national government, the providers of care, the municipal council and the inhabitants of the municipality. The respondents were asked to give the vision of these groups when it comes to youth welfare.

There does not appear to be a large difference between the municipalities and the national government and if there is, it is in the conditions of certain things. There are some questions, which are noticeable in multiple municipalities, as to whether the budget cuts for each year are a good idea. However, this is not really an issue on which the municipality can set its own course.

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the municipality of De Wolden that wants to make more use of the one family, one plan strategy. However, to do this they had to setup meetings in which the contractors are all present. The smaller contractors were unable to do this due to constraints on time and costs. Therefore, they plan to add more space in the new contracts to make this happen. However, on a broad level the main goal of both parties is to deliver good care as is discussed by the policy maker in Staphorst, who believes that "all people who work in care want the best for the child and also for the family".

If we look at the municipal council, there has not been a large amount of discussion in the council in most municipalities. There are five respondents who mention that there was no real discussion and only one positive. Often the council is very interested in the transition but they do not appear to actively influence policy. Additionally, when asked about the vision of the council, there were a lot of similarities with the policy makers, but also with how the national government discusses it. There are a lot of specific terms, such as prevention, shorter lines of communication, using less specialised care and the budget appears to be quite important. However, there is no real evidence that the vision they have is vastly different.

The role of the inhabitants of municipalities in the welfare system is difficult to grasp. On the one hand, there are the clients who have significant contact with the social workers. On the other hand, there are inhabitants who have nothing to do with youth welfare. The municipalities also appear to struggle with this duality. At the moment, there are several municipalities which are working on client satisfaction studies, as they do not have a detailed overview on the opinions of clients and inhabitants. Some municipalities have held participation evenings, which are not always widely visited. One respondent notes that "it is not important for citizens, they have a question and they want help, and they are not concerned with policy". It appears as though families in the welfare system are more likely to discuss their opinions, and the municipalities tend to actively listen to them and see whether they need to change something.

Therefore, there appears to be a lack of colliding institutional logics between the various

organizations. This means that proposition 2 is rejected based on the fact that no hard evidence has been found that suggests that colliding institutional logics cause practice variation. However, it may still be possible to find evidence of practice variation, which in term can still influence the goals of the new Youth Act.

5.3 Similarities and differences between municipalities

[28] 5.3.1 Similarities between municipalities

The respondents discuss how there are a lot of similarities between municipalities. These appear to be on a larger level. Whereas the municipalities may differ on how they tackle certain details, the larger context tends to show more similarities. Larger municipalities more often have something like a neighbourhood team, whereas smaller municipalities appear to be more likely to adapt a directors model. The policy maker in Duiven discussed how "every municipality has a social team and has organized the local entrance to allow for an integral approach and a directors function. Everybody does this". This is similar to the interviewee in De Wolden said "We are all responsible for the same task, even though the route may vary, it is the same process". The social worker in Berkelland thinks that the similarities between municipalities lie in the fact that the main goal is always to help people. These similarities may stem from the fact that interviewees discuss how the demand for care is often very similar in the municipalities. There are some differences, such as problems with GHB in one municipality and speed in another, but the basis is often the same.

To summarise, there appears to be a lack of a strong coercive pressure, which means that instead of causing homogeneity, there seems to be a push towards freedom. However, it is possible to see how the municipalities copy each other and how they use the advice given by professional groups. Therefore, there is reason to believe that there are isomorphic pressures on the municipalities which cause homogeneity. This means that except for the coercive mechanism, proposition 1 is supported by the interviews.

5.3.2 Differences between municipalities

One interesting statement concerning differences between municipalities was in De Wolden: "there are certain parts where you want to add your local colour". As already was discussed during the similarities, it appears as though the differences mostly lie in smaller details. This can directly be seen in the same muncipality: "What you can see is that the focus has moved more towards the local, especially when looking at execution". There are some good examples from the interviews that can be used to illustrate this, where changes were made due to differences in local context. In the

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But there are many questions that every municipality faces when it comes to adapting their organization to the new Youth Act, questions that they answer in different ways. Where some

municipalities have social workers who are directly employed by the municipality, others use separate entities who respond to the municipality. Some municipalities use generalist teams, others use

specialists, and there are even generalist teams in which the individuals are specialists. There are differences in terms of the contracts that they use with providers of care.

Therefore, it is clear that there is practice variation as it is possible to identify differences between the municipalities. However, it can be hard to identify what the reason is for these decisions and which decisions are more effective?

5.4 Goals of the new Youth Act

To research the current state of the new Youth Act, a look was taken at the goals of the transition. These goals were discussed in the practical background as the ability to create a custom approach, an increase in efficiency and an increase in cooperation in the welfare system.

5.4.1 Custom approach

To find out what this custom approach was in practice, interviewees were asked to discuss what they see as a custom approach. Additionally, they were asked what role the social network of a child or family has in this custom approach. And lastly, whether there was an increased ability to create a custom approach for the youth.

Respondents had largely similar views on what they see as a custom approach. This can be largely seen in quotes such as "every human is unique and as is every solution" by the social worker in Berkelland and "You can have differences, two children with the same problem can receive different care due to having different social networks" by the policy maker in Rijssen-Holten. There general opinion appears to be that a custom approach helps increase the quality of the care. Additionally, sometimes it may be able to save a municipality some money, although other times it means spending more. A nice example that was given in one municipality was that of a boy who did not respond well to traditional help through specialised care. This boy eventually came into contact with an older gentleman who went hiking with him in the forest every weekend, as they both had a passion for nature. This approach caused him to progress faster. It was not only cheaper than specialised care, but also more effective.

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approach to be a goal of the transition, but the other respondents did not share this view. The social worker in Berkelland discussed how "a custom approach is nice, and good, and important, but it isn't everything" and the policy maker in the same municipality mentions how this custom approach has always been a goal within youth welfare, it is just the way in which it is done which has changed. Mainly the shorter lines of communication towards the practice, increased cooperation and better connections with providers of care are helpful.

5.4.2 Efficiency

The efficiency of the youth care in municipalities was investigated by checking whether the budget had been sufficient for 2015. Additionally, it was asked where municipalities were able to save money. Since social workers do not deal with municipal budgets their answers are not included in the first question.

All municipalities have stayed within the municipal budget they received from the national

government. However, the municipality of Staphorst is a bit of a special case. Within their region, they have made the deal to show solidarity to the municipalities who are unable to stay within the budget. Consequently, this meant that they will go slightly over budget to show solidarity to other

municipalities. Additionally, there are however a lot of intricacies which are important to discuss as the real answer does not appear to be as black-and-white. There are some questions among

interviewees about the old system, in which budgets kept rising every year, and they "do not know if we did a good job, or whether they just did it to generous before" as was stated in Duiven. There are still a lot of doubts about where the cost savings have been made, as this is a very complex question. The positive changes appear to be made in making less use of specialised care, through easier contact with citizens and more focus on prevention, and a saving is made in the collective purchasing at lower rates. However, there appear to be problems with some contractors in municipalities, as there are sometimes disputes over contracts, administrative differences and there are municipalities who are still receiving bills for 2015. Additionally, some respondents are not certain whether they will be able to keep cutting as much costs as the national government requires them to do.

5.4.3 Increased cooperation in welfare system

Respondents are generally stating that they have made large steps when it comes to cooperating with clients, contractors and other parties in the youth welfare system. There is not a single respondent who sees less or equal cooperation as before, largely due to the shorter lines of communication. There are eight strongly positive answers and two moderately positive answers. The social worker in Berkelland noted "I think that this cooperation is crucial for better care and there is better and more

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Within this cooperation, the social worker from the municipality often tends to move towards a directors role when multiple contractors are active. It is not always easy to direct the care, an example is given by one respondent who discusses how there are cases where one client has up to twenty different people who are responsible for a certain part of his welfare. This means that when you want to have one plan, you need twenty people to agree. It is not always possible to simply say that there should be less people who are involved, you need their specialism. Additionally, each organization also has their own priorities and interests which may make it difficult to direct this process. However, when this cooperation succeeds, it has significant positive results for the client.

5.5 Relationships among concepts

The relationships between isomorphic pressures and homogeneity on the one hand and conflicting institutional logics on the other have already been discussed in the corresponding section. This section will focus on the impact that these topics have on the goals of the new Youth Act.

5.5.1 Relationship homogeneity with the goals

As mentioned earlier, there appears to be a relatively large degree of freedom and thus a lack of coercive isomorphism. Therefore, it is not possible to say that municipalities adopt similar designs due to coercive pressures. However, an opposite trend can be seen in the interviews, where the lack of pressure allows municipalities to make their own decisions. The interviewee in Apeldoorn talks about this and mentions that "the less freedom you have, the less you can make it fit to your local situation", this respondent does not believe that this results in 400 unique solutions but does believe that it leads to smaller differences. There appears to be a strong link between freedom and creating a custom approach, in municipality De Wolden it was mentioned that "this freedom allows an increased ability to create a custom approach". Additionally, the social worker in Rijssen-Holten mentions that when there is a lack of rules, you gain freedom, which gives more opportunities to look at what a family exactly needs.

We have seen some examples where professional organizations are able to influence the

municipalities. This is signified in one interview, where it is mentioned that this is largely indirect. The policy maker reads something in a rapport and starts working on it in the local setting. They often could not directly specify how this had a strong influence on the goals. One example that was given was by the social worker in Rijssen-Holten. In a report by the children's ombudsman there was a call for more cooperation with general practitioners, and they put some extra emphasis on this.

Additionally, by changing certain things on the basis of these rapports, there has to eventually be a benefit that trickles down into the quality of the youth welfare system.

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municipalities communicate with each other to see how others deal with certain problems. The social worker in Rijssen-Holten discusses how, once in a while, they meet with employees from different municipalities to discuss certain things. Whereas all calls to youth welfare in Rijssen-Holten were directed to a single point, one other municipality had the front office already direct these questions to the right person. This was deemed as more efficient and therefore, Rijssen-Holten is considering implementing this way of working as well. However, they also mentioned that implementing such changes is not always easy in a municipality.

Although it is not always easy to see directly how these isomorphic pressures influence the goals of the new Youth Act, there appear to be some conclusions that arise. First of all, the lack of strong coercive isomorphism has as a result that the municipalities take the freedom that is given to them and use this to create custom approaches for children and families. There is one clear example of how a report from the children's ombudsman resulted in increased cooperation between the municipality and general practitioners. This means that there is some reason to believe that normative isomorphism influences the goals of the new Youth Act. Additionally, by looking at things that other municipalities do better, we can also see a clear example of how mimetic isomorphism can lead to an increase in efficiency. Through these examples we can see that proposition 4 is supported, in that these moves towards homogeneity through can lead to increased cooperation and efficiency.

5.5.2Relationship practice variation with the goals

We have seen that there are a lot of points on which the municipalities differ. What is more difficult is to see and to determine why some of these decisions are made, and how they influence the goals that we have discussed. This is not something that can be strongly seen in the interviews, leading to the fact that there were no points on which institutional logics appeared to collide. This will be reflected upon to a greater extent in the discussion. There are some cases in which it is possible to draw some interesting conclusions. Perhaps the most clear example being the smaller contractors receiving more leniency in their contracts to join in on meetings, which should result in a better cooperation in the welfare system. Other examples are the meeting for foster parents and the website that allows citizens to come into contact with each other. These are clear local initiatives that are seen as adding value for families. Whether these are also cases of a custom approach on an individual level depends on your view. They may not be unique solutions as they are the available for a large group of people, but they are the right solution that goes with a problem.