Issues of cross‐sector service delivery in complex settings: Does the ‘public policy–implementation’ framework help?

Abstract The ‘policy–implementation’ framework emerged in the 1970s to provide an academic and professional description of decisions and actions in public affairs, compatible with more open democracies with broader and more social agendas. It saw policies as designed and approved by governments with public services responsible for their implementation. This hierarchical simplicity was later softened by the introduction of the street‐level agenda and discussions of governance, but, in the administrative imaginary, policy and implementation continue to flow outwards and downwards. Whilst this may remain a plausible description of some public service settings, there are a growing number of others in which the everyday experience is radically different. Amongst these are services that require cross‐sector actions in complex and vulnerable settings and where policy is neither implemented nor translated but fragmented and rebuilt on a case‐by‐case basis. Is it sufficient to treat such cases as outliers, or is it time to rethink the curve? Could a public action framework provide a better option? The empirical focus of the article is on the policy–implementation framework for probation services for young people in São Paulo, Brazil, but similar challenges can be found in other areas in developing and developed countries. Points for practitioners For practitioners in street‐level organisations: remember that policies, directives, and other instructions need to be translated and sometimes they do not apply. For policy advisors: is the policy you are proposing capable of being translated into daily action? Does it converse with practice? For policymakers: take time out to meet with people who are trying to apply your policies in their day‐to‐day work.