Samenvatting

In 2010 the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) concluded that the Social Support Act (Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning, Wmo) is successful as it leads to greater coherence in policies, and because the public Wmo-advisory councils are satisfied with the role they play. Wmo councils provide solicited and unsolicited advice to municipalities. They defend citizens’ interests against those of health care providers and insurance companies. Despite the positive results of the SCP study, there is an ongoing debate about the restyling of the Wmo-councils to increase their influence on local policy making. Some studies even call for a national council to prevent bargaining between the Associations of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS).

In this exploratory article, the authors analyse the influence of five local Wmo-councils - Alkmaar, Delft, Kerkrade, Tilburg and Utrecht - on local policy making. They examined the recognition and authority of these five councils and studied if municipalities heeded their advice. The article shows, that Wmo-councils themselves are dissatisfied with the influence they have. Subsequently, it demonstrates that municipalities anticipated the actions of Wmo-councils but hardly ever changed their policies accordingly. Wmo-councils are meant as a horizontal counterweight but are in danger of not being taken seriously.