Quality requirements in youth care tenders

This research provides an overview of the quality requirements in tenders for youth care in the Netherlands. Most municipalities are focusing on the technical requirements for youth care in their tenders with detailed specifications, whereas functional requirements are more desired as these leave room for innovation. The use of technical specifications give municipalities more power in shaping the youth care. In addition to this are technical specifications also easier to cover themselves for mistakes. The technical specifications, made up for 82% of the total quality requirements observed when analysing the total requirements. This could be interpreted in a way that municipalities seem to have little trust towards youth care providers. This assumption is supported by the fact that nearly 90% of the included quality requirements were extra requirements arranged by municipalities in addition to the national quality requirements from the Dutch law. When looking at the care categories separately, the percentage of functional requirements is slightly higher. Not much variety was seen in the quality requirements compared per youth care category. Nearly one in five of the quality requirements per youth care category required a type of administration. Of these administrative requirements, 40% are returning tasks during the contract.