Comprehensive Community Initiatives: Addressing a ‘Problem’ in Local Governance or Creating One?

Pervaded by ‘third way’ values and identified as archetypal ComprehensiveCommunity Initiatives (CCIs), programmes such as Education Action Zones (EAZs)and Health Action Zones (HAZs) follow a procedural rationale based on heterarchyand partnership. They are a response to an alleged prior fragmentation ofservice provision in welfare across sectors. Employing evidence from anevaluation of an EAZ and HAZ in one location, this article makes two claims.First, it is claimed that the extent of the alleged ?problem? of fragmentationacross the governance of local social and welfare services prior to theintroduction of these CCIs is contestable and was exaggerated for politicalpurposes. Second, despite the application of CCIs in the form of EAZs and HAZs,it is claimed that a continuing problem of fragmentation across local governanceof social and welfare services is evident. Several insights from the emergingtheory of governance failure are employed to offer an explanation for why thissituation has occurred.