Digging Into the Subsoil: Considering and Theorizing Human Services Delivery at the Sub‐Micro‐Level of the Public Service Ecosystem

ABSTRACT

Public services are often delivered in partnership with families and communities, yet these relationships receive limited attention within public service ecosystem (PSE) theory. Responding to call to develop the sub‐micro‐level of the PSE, we introduce the concept of subsoil sensitivity to foreground the family and community ecosystems that underpin public service value creation. These informal systems are active sites of value creation and destruction with sensitivities arising from their alignment or misalignment with public services. We propose legislative and policy nodes as connectors that translate macrolevel policy into microlevel practice. Drawing on child protection vignettes, we show how nodes create the conditions for interaction, while subsoil dynamics influence whether value is cocreated or codestroyed amid power asymmetries and differing belief systems. The paper extends the sub‐micro‐level of the PSE and offers a framework for examining family and community ecosystems in public service delivery.