Privatization of social care delivery - how can contracts be specified?

When contracting out services to private actors, public authorities must be able to ensure that the quality of services provided is satisfactory. Therefore, it is important to formulate precise quality requirements, thus making them possible to monitor. In the study, 1,005 quality requirements from public procurements of nursing homes were categorized, and their degree of monitorability assessed. The analysis showed that quality requirements related to soft' areas such as social activities typically were non-monitorable. The requirements were written in an imprecise, vague manner, thus making it difficult for the local governments to determine whether or not they were met.