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john mohan

University of Birmingham, School of Social Policy, Faculty Member

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Papers by john mohan

The contribution of the voluntary sector to mental health crisis care: a mixed-methods study

Health Services and Delivery Research, Jul 1, 2020

during the conduct of the study. Benjamin Costello is a director and trustee of Bromsgrove and Re... more during the conduct of the study. Benjamin Costello is a director and trustee of Bromsgrove and Redditch Network (BARN), a local council for voluntary services, which is also a volunteer centre; he is also a director and trustee of Redditch Nightstop. Disclaimer: This report contains transcripts of interviews conducted in the course of the research and contains language that may offend some readers.

Public Perceptions of and Trust in Associations and Volunteers

The Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations, 2016

This chapter reviews research on incidence–prevalence–exit (demise) rates of membership associati... more This chapter reviews research on incidence–prevalence–exit (demise) rates of membership associations (MAs) across sets of geographic territories of varying scope, with a main focus on explaining MA prevalence rates (frequencies of associations in a territory). Basic changes in the economic structure/system of societies explain the four, global, associational revolutions in human history over the past 10 millennia (Smith 2016b). The determinants of prevalence vary across levels of analysis, but sheer population size is always a major determinant of greater absolute MA prevalence. Other important influences on MA prevalence at the level of nations include gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, average level of formal education, extent of civil liberties, government expenditures per capita, MA density in prior time period, prevalence of association-support infrastructure organizations, and experience with democracy (Schofer and Longhofer 2011; Smith and Shen 2002).

The Role of the Third Sector in Public Health Service Provision: Evidence from 25,338 heterogeneous procurement datasets

External suppliers across statutory health insurance procurement are a source of political conten... more External suppliers across statutory health insurance procurement are a source of political contention throughout the modern world. We comprehensively examine the role of non-profits within publicly funded healthcare which runs parallel to private provision in a 'two-tier' system. We build a unique 'Big Data' based pipeline which scrapes tens of thousands of heterogeneous accounting datasets from across a commissioning hierarchy, mandated by transparency requirements introduced by David Cameron in 2010. The processed dataset contains over £140bn worth of commissioning across over 1.9m rows of clean data. Approximately 1% at each level of procurement comes from institutions listed on the Charity Commission for England and Wales: a number relatively consistent across time, despite contractual patterns. We analyse regional variation, linking to the International Classification of Non-profit Organizations to show the involvement of multiple different types of charity. More payments go to the 'Social Services' aggregate, but the highest cumulative values go to the 'Health' aggregate. We analyse distributions across various sizes and ages, from grassroots to 'Super Majors', all over time. We conclude with a re-evaluation of the controversial Health and Social Care Act of 2012 and the integration of the free market and volunteerism, otherwise known as the 'Big Society'.

The role of charitable funding in the provision of public services: the case of the English and Welsh National Health Service

Policy & Politics

The role of charity in the provision of public services is of substantial academic and practition... more The role of charity in the provision of public services is of substantial academic and practitioner interest, and charitable initiative within the English and Welsh National Health Service (NHS) has recently received considerable attention. This study provides rich insights into the role that NHS-linked charities present themselves as playing within the NHS. The dataset analysed is a novel construction of 3,250 detailed expenditure lines from 676 sets of charity accounts. Qualitative content analysis of itemised descriptions of expenditure allows us to explore how these charities portray their activities. We distinguish between expenditures that can be framed as supplementary to government funding (such as amenities and comforts) and items that suggest charitable effort is substituting for government support (such as funding for clinical equipment). We also consider the claims being made through these representations, and suggest that the distinctiveness of the charity and NHS spher...

Research data supporting "Charity Density and Social Need: A Longitudinal Perspective" forthcoming in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

Paid work and volunteering in the third sector in North East England

also contributed directly to the analysis and / or provided valuable advice. The primary data for... more also contributed directly to the analysis and / or provided valuable advice. The primary data for the analysis of the accounts of third sector organisations was supplied by Guidestar Data Services. In addition we drew on data supplied by the Charity Commission. The NSTSO and Citizenship Survey data are publicly available through the Economic and Social Data Service (www.esds.ac.uk).

Communities as ‘renewable energy’ for healthcare services? a multimethods study into the form, scale and role of voluntary support for community hospitals in England

BMJ Open, 2019

ObjectiveTo examine the forms, scale and role of community and voluntary support for community ho... more ObjectiveTo examine the forms, scale and role of community and voluntary support for community hospitals in England.DesignA multimethods study. Quantitative analysis of Charity Commission data on levels of volunteering and voluntary income for charities supporting community hospitals. Nine qualitative case studies of community hospitals and their surrounding communities, including interviews and focus groups.SettingCommunity hospitals in England and their surrounding communities.ParticipantsCharity Commission data for 245 community hospital Leagues of Friends. Interviews with staff (89), patients (60), carers (28), volunteers (35), community representatives (20), managers and commissioners (9). Focus groups with multidisciplinary teams (8 groups across nine sites, involving 43 respondents), volunteers (6 groups, 33 respondents) and community stakeholders (8 groups, 54 respondents).ResultsCommunities support community hospitals through: human resources (average=24 volunteers a year p...

Analysis of the profile, characteristics, patient experience and community value of community hospitals: a multimethod study

Health Services and Delivery Research, 2019

BackgroundCommunity hospitals have been part of England’s health-care landscape since the mid-nin... more BackgroundCommunity hospitals have been part of England’s health-care landscape since the mid-nineteenth century. Evidence on them has not kept pace with their development.AimTo provide a comprehensive analysis of the profile, characteristics, patient experience and community value of community hospitals.DesignA multimethod study with three phases. Phase 1 involved national mapping and the construction of a new database of community hospitals through data set reconciliation and verification. Phase 2 involved nine case studies, including interviews and focus groups with patients (n = 60), carers (n = 28), staff (n = 132), volunteers (n = 68), community stakeholders (n = 74) and managers and commissioners (n = 9). Phase 3 involved analysis of Charity Commission data on voluntary support.SettingCommunity hospitals in England.ResultsThe study identified 296 community hospitals with beds in England. Typically, the hospitals were small (< 30 beds), in rural communities, led by doctors/...

Understanding neighbourhood perceptions of alcohol-related anti-social behaviour

Urban Studies, 2014

Negative perceptions of anti-social behaviour have been shown by previous research to have harmfu... more Negative perceptions of anti-social behaviour have been shown by previous research to have harmful repercussions to both an individual’s mental and physical health as well as the neighbourhood’s long-term prospects. Studies in the USA have previously found that the location of alcohol supply points is associated with these negative perceptions, whereas recent, more qualitative and ethnographic research from the UK emphasises the heterogenous and contingent nature of attitudes and perceptions towards alcohol consumption patterns and behaviour. Using multilevel models applied to data from a national crime survey and geocoded data on pubs, bars and nightclubs, this paper focuses on the complex relationship between perceptions of alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and the density of such establishments across England. The findings support the general link between unfavourable perceptions and density of outlets but also highlight the complexity of this association by showing that thes...

Blurring the Boundaries: Health Care Outside the NHS

A National Health Service?, 1995

Blurring the Boundaries: Health Care Outside the NHS The 1970s and 1980s were marked by rapid, th... more Blurring the Boundaries: Health Care Outside the NHS The 1970s and 1980s were marked by rapid, though not uninterrupted, growth in commercial health care. I say 'commercial', in opposition to the more usual 'private' or 'independent' health care, since the dominant feature of the growth of health care outside the NHS has been commercial medicine. In addition there is nothing in the appellation 'private' to distinguish the health care that is actually provided from that in the NHS (apart, perhaps, from the privacy afforded individual patients); nor is health care outside the NHS really 'independent' in view of its close interrelationship with developments in the NHS (Griffith, Mohan and Rayner, 1985; Griffith, Iliffe and Rayner, 1987). The term 'independent' has been deliberately promoted by the private sector: it at once attempts to rebut criticisms that the sector depends on the state for recruitment and training personnel, and suggests that the sector is self-reliant. Williams (1989, p. 75) observes a similar strategy in private education: 'it is much easier to sell "independent" schools to the public than it is to sell "private" ones. As a title "public" is dangerous: it now has disturbing connotations of privilege, while carrying disconcerting memories of just why schools were so called'. Just as public schools have deliberately emphasised their so-called 'independence' so too have private and commercial hospitals sought to distance themselves from any criticism that they draw resources away from publicly-funded health care. However markets do not operate independently of specific institutional conditions and frameworks (Hindess, 1987): the growth and development of commercial health care in Britain is inextricably bound up with state policies towards both the private sector and the NHS. Consequently I seek to chart the recent growth of the commercial sector and to demonstrate its close relationship to state policy decisions, whether these be concerned with the rate of growth of NHS resources, the relationship between the NHS and the private

A National Health Service?

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to crimina... more

Mind The Double Gap: Using Multivariate Multilevel Modelling to Investigate Public Perceptions of Crime Trends

British Journal of Criminology, 2011

This paper uses multivariate multilevel models with data from the British Crime Survey to investi... more This paper uses multivariate multilevel models with data from the British Crime Survey to investigate individual and neighbourhood influences on perceptions of local and national crime trends. In response to debates about the negative consequences of immigration and ethnic diversity, we specifically investigate the influence of ethnic heterogeneity on such perceptions. Results indicate that a person's socio-demographic background and their newspaper readership have the strongest association with perceptions of national trends whilst the strongest association with pessimistic views on localized crime is whether the individual has been a recent crime victim. Results suggest no negative effects for ethnic diversity. Moreover, the findings indicate that living in a mixed neighbourhood is associated with a reduced likelihood of perceiving rising levels of national crime.

Geographies of welfare and social exclusion: Dimensions, consequences and methods

Progress in Human Geography, 2002

In the first of this series of reports I reviewed research into social polarization, segregation ... more In the first of this series of reports I reviewed research into social polarization, segregation and exclusion. The focus was very much on material dimensions of exclusion, and this report is an attempt to examine work on some wider social dimensions of exclusion. Thus, in addition to highlighting important work which continues to appear on sociospatial polarization, I also consider work on access to basic necessities: housing, food and communications. I then outline work which has considered some ramifications of exclusion in relation to crime, health and social cohesion. I conclude with some reflections on the range of methods now being deployed to understand exclusion. There is an Anglo-American bias to this-indeed an Anglocentric bias-but the focus on a small range of societies helps to highlight the overlapping nature of some of the dimensions of social exclusion and the underlying processes. First, continuing a theme in the first of these reports, important work continues to emerge on the conceptualization and measurement of sociospatial polarization and segregation. Wacquant (1999: 1640-44) locates these processes in the context of a new urban regime of 'advanced marginality', fuelled by four 'dynamics'. These are: the resurgence of social inequality (the macrosocial dynamic); the mutation of wage labour (the economic dynamic; see also Merrifield, 2000a; 2000b); the reconstruction of welfare states (the political dynamic); and processes of concentration and stigmatization (the spatial dynamic). These processes produce a range of outcomes, as can be shown from work in several cities on segregation and polarization. Thus, criticism of the so-called 'global cities' hypothesis has been extended by several authors, such as Hamnett and Cross (1998) on income distribution in London, Baum's (1997) work on Sydney, and Clark and McNicholas's (1996) study of Los Angeles. Studies of Canadian, French and Italian cities have demonstrated the complexity of interactions between polarization

nvsq-accepted-charity-density-and-social-need_a-longitudinal-perspective_supplementary-materials_20200118 – Supplemental material for Charity Density and Social Need: A Longitudinal Perspective

Supplemental material, nvsq-accepted-charity-density-and-social-need_a-longitudinal-perspective_s... more

The English Third Sector Policy in 2015 : an overview of perceived barriers to realising impact potential Summary of research findings for Work Package 5 Third Sector Impact

Third Sector Impact: Towards a More Nuanced Understanding of Barriers and Constraints

Taking the long view' will require investing in organisations in the initial, early years of thei... more Taking the long view' will require investing in organisations in the initial, early years of their development in a way which seeks to build in resilience from the onset; but also suggests a need for measures to support agencies as they 'mature' over a decade or more. Without such support, under conditions of austerity, the supplementary research reported in this Briefing implies that many organisations will simply not realise their perceived impact potential, and remain preoccupied with a struggle to secure the resources required to function at even a rudimentary level.

National Report 1 / 2016 Third Sector Impact : towards a more nuanced understanding of barriers and constraints Supplementary analysis to UK Work Package 5 Third Sector Impact

Taking the long view' will require investing in organisations in the initial, early years of thei... more Taking the long view' will require investing in organisations in the initial, early years of their development in a way which seeks to build in resilience from the onset; but also suggests a need for measures to support agencies as they 'mature' over a decade or more. Without such support, under conditions of austerity, the supplementary research reported in this Briefing implies that many organisations will simply not realise their perceived impact potential, and remain preoccupied with a struggle to secure the resources required to function at even a rudimentary level.

Charity Density and Social Need: A Longitudinal Perspective

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 2020

The distribution of charitable organizations in an equitable and socially just manner is a long-s... more The distribution of charitable organizations in an equitable and socially just manner is a long-standing policy concern in the United Kingdom and many other jurisdictions. Geographic variations are important as they are linked to potentially inequitable service provision and opportunities for participation in voluntary activities. This study links large-scale administrative data on charities registered in England and Wales with local authority-level measures of material deprivation for 5 U.K. census years (1971–2011). Count and spatial regression models show evidence of nonlinear associations between charity density and social need, and changes in the shape of this distribution over time. In general, charity density is highest in the least deprived local authorities but this varies across different types of organizations and census years. These results provide important new insights into the evolving relationship between charity density and social need, and demonstrate the value of ...

The English Voluntary Sector: how Volunteering and Policy Climate Perceptions Matter

Journal of Social Policy, 2018

This paper considers the situation of the English voluntary sector in relation to austerity-drive... more This paper considers the situation of the English voluntary sector in relation to austerity-driven social policies. Existing characterisations are outlined and it is argued that the quantitative evidence used to represent the situation of these organisations to date has been partial because it relies too narrowly on financial resource input measures. We argue that the situation of these organisations needs to be conceptualised in a more holistic way and, to initiate a move in this direction, we identify and explicate two relevant dimensions: the perceived capacity of organisations to rely on volunteers for support (a non-financial resource input); and their perception of the effect of the policy climate in shaping their capacity to flourish, including their ability to perform multiple roles beyond service provision alone. We draw on an original mixed methods empirical study undertaken in England in 2015 to operationalise these dimensions, combining qualitative interviews with nation...

Community-level impacts of the third sector: Does the local distribution of voluntary organizations influence the likelihood of volunteering?

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2019

Scholars have attributed various beneficial outcomes to the presence and density of the voluntary... more Scholars have attributed various beneficial outcomes to the presence and density of the voluntary, third or non-profit sector in communities. One way in which the distribution of such organizations may benefit communities is through providing opportunities for volunteering. We hypothesize that the distribution of third-sector organizations has an influence, after controlling for relevant individual and area characteristics, on the likelihood of engaging in formal volunteering (defined as unpaid help given through, and to, third-sector organizations, rather than directly to individuals). Using administrative data from the Charity Commission, we classify organizations in terms of their geographical scale of operation. We then construct indicators of the distribution of charities, and their expenditures, for local authorities in England. We obtain data on volunteering by individuals from the Citizenship Survey and link this to administrative data contained in the Charity Commission reg...