Social Franchising

Social franchising is defined as a system of contractual relationships “usually run by a non-governmental organization which uses the structure of a commercial franchise to achieve social goals” [Montagu D (2002) Franchising of health services in developing countries. Health Policy and Planning, 17(2): 121-130.] . The definition can further be expanded to mean:

The social franchise is an adaptation of a commercial franchise in which the developer of a successfully tested social concept (franchiser) enables others (franchisees) to replicate the model using the tested system and brand name to achieve a social benefit.

One essential element is to belong to a network of franchises and in this network the coordinator (franchiser) is responsible for bringing harmony and concordance to the network and ensure consistency among the health service providers [Prata N, Monagu D, Jeffrys E (2005) Private sector, human resources and health franchising in Africa, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83(4): 274-279.] [Perrot J (2006) Different approaches to contracting in health systems. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(11): 859-866.] . Often in social franchising the services are subsidized so that the recipient of services has a lower out-of-pocket payment. The elements that typify a social franchising package are: Training, Protocolized management, Standardization of supplies and services, Branding, Monitoring, and Network membership.

Franchising Model

Franchising for clinical services can be further categorized according to model and the strength of the network:

*Stand-alone model: provides exclusively franchised supported services or commodities
*Fractional model: services are added to a practice that existed before the franchising operation and only a portion of the services are from the franchise
*First generation franchising where the franchiser offer a territory and use of franchising within the guidelines.
*Second generation franchising includes first part and active monitoring and control (creating a tighter, more structured, more regulated network) [Stephenson R, Ong Tsui A, Sulzbach S, Bardsley P, Bekele G, Giday T, Ahmed R, Gopalkrishnan G, Feyesitan B (2004) Franchising Reproductive Health Services. Health Services Research, 39(6 Pt 2): 2053–2080]

References