bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ideology, Conflict and Social Policy
Authors: Birrell Derek , Murie Alan 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTSocial policy in Northern Ireland offers examples of social policies strongly influenced by ideological considerations. There are a number of factors which determine how susceptible services and policies are to ideological influences. Some services are particularly sensitive to ideological values and demands, for example, education. In certain areas the distribution of services and the allocation of resources has been significant in maintaining the political structure. The distribution of administrative responsibility, the absence of pressure from Britain for maintaining parity in social services, and the absence of non-secretarian pressures on the government are other significant factors. The process of analysing problems and formulating social policy reflects deep ideological divisions. This can be contrasted with the rational, empirical and pragmatic models of policy making, implicit in the development of social policy in Britain. With some minor modifications the British model of the Welfare State operates in Northern Ireland. In some areas it operates to serve ends other than those of redistribution or meeting social need. This provides insights into some of the assumptions made about social policy and the Welfare State in Britain.
Social Indicators, Urban Deprivation and Positive Discrimination
Authors: Edwards John 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe use of social indicators in the implementation of area-specific positive discrimination programmes is increasing and is likely to continue to do so. It is important in this context that some of the unintended consequences of their use be appreciated.It is argued that the concentration on the statistical niceties and technical details of social indicators especially as they are applied to the identification of areas of urban deprivation has been misplaced, and the concern for the ‘arithmetic of woe’ has diverted attention away from some of the more fundamental assumptions underlying their use.As predominantly used, social indicators have assumed both that a value consensus exists about the nature and parameters of urban deprivation, when in fact this is an issue of value (and political) conflict, and, more specifically, that urban deprivation springs from social pathology. By default, urban deprivation has been assumed to be that which the indicators measure, when in fact they often reflect no more than existing levels of service provision and current social policies.There is a need for a clear (even if arbitrary) definition of deprivation, and the derivation of indicators from such a definition. In the latter part of the article the author outlines an attempt to do this.
Approaches to the Analysis of Social Service Organizations
Authors: Rose Gordon 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTOrganizations have some similarities, although they also vary widely. Various modes of conceptualizing and analysing Organizations have developed largely from work in industry, but also from studies in the public sector, but one has to consider which of these are particularly relevant to the study of social service Organizations. The approach commonly used in comparing Organizations to Weber's description of bureaucracy is not very productive; and neither is a similar usage of Goffman's ‘total institution’. A critical examination is made of analytical categories set up by one author, but these also are of limited usefulness, and it is suggested that it is better to approach the problem by looking at important general problems which are central to many kinds of Organizations. Some of those which seem to be particularly relevant to social service Organizations are discussed. These are: the relationship between technology and structure; organizational climates; occupational conflicts; and organizational environments. Various examples are given to illustrate how these affect particular sectors of the field. Entering an area of study by selecting problems which are of key importance has a long tradition in social administration, as in other disciplines, and the study of social service Organizations is no exception.
Supplementary Benefits: Dilemmas and Priorities
Authors: Donnison David 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe statutory functions of the Supplementary Benefits Commission are described, together with the Secretary of State's invitation to the Commission to play a more active and public part in reformulating the problems of social assistance and proposing policies for dealing with them. Next the Commission's Chairman considers how he and his colleagues should respond to this invitation and which issues they should concentrate upon, focusing particularly on the growing use of discretion in a service originally intended to confer clearly understood rights, the bewildering complexity which results from this trend, and the ‘frontier’ problems arising between their service and other social services. In conclusion he considers the implications of the Commission's extended role for other bodies and the Commission's relations with them – particularly Ministers and their advisers, the academic community, the communications media, and the pressure groups. Ultimately, he asks, should the Commission itself be abolished?
Intention and Implication in Housing Policy: A study of Recent Developments in Urban Renewal
Authors: Mason Tim 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis paper considers the explicit intentions and possible implications of the new phase of urban renewal policy now being developed in Britain under the Housing Act 1974. The details of the Act are seen in the context of the evolution of this type of social policy since the last war. The aims of this policy are to preserve certain ‘housing functions’ that are considered to be necessary components of the urban housing system, at the same time as relieving ‘housing stress’ and achieving the physical improvement of existing dwellings. A case study of an inner city improvement area in a provincial conurbation is used to suggest that it will be difficult to achieve all these aims at one time due to the inherent limitations of policies based on small areas. These limitations are seen as the consequence of a continuing effort to patch up the obvious shortcomings of existing policies without wishing to face the political and economic problems of a comprehensive housing policy.
Developmental Roles for Social Work in the Third World: The Prospect of Social Planning
Authors: Midgley James 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTMany social workers today are critical of what they regard as their profession's conventional concern with remedial social welfare. This criticism has been voiced with special reference to developing countries, and some social workers have suggested alternative roles for social work in the third world. Among these it has been suggested that social workers should take prime responsibility for social development planning in the developing countries. But this suggestion is unrealistic. Social workers are not likely to be asked to participate in national social policy formulation and planning until they have legitimized their claim to professional status and public recognition and demonstrated their ability to deal with the pressing problems of poverty in the third world through direct service.
From Poor Law to Positive Discrimination
Authors: Batley Richard 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe principle of positive discrimination in favour of the poor has emerged out of a tangled history of social welfare debate about universalism and selectivity. Positive discrimination, based on the idea of ‘inclusive’ selectivity, represents something of a hybrid of the two concepts. The ‘rediscovery of poverty’ and the recognition that universal benefits were not adequate or reaching intended beneficiaries contributed to the general case for specially channelled services. But the government's response has tended to be piecemeal, responding to specific pressures and criticisms with a wide array of small and separate programmes of positive discrimination. This article traces the particular pressures, in race relations, which contributed to the emergence of the Urban Aid Programme and shows what lessons were learned from the experience of the American poverty programmes.
Towards a Methodology of Action Research
Authors: Powley Terry , Evans Dave 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTAction research has emerged as a particular form of applied social science investigation in attempts to develop useful ways of trying out and evaluating social policy innovations. Despite a variety of contributions to the debate about its methodology, action research remains a term that is employed very vaguely to describe all kinds of design that include some combination of the two elements of action and research. This paper outlines the methods that were adopted in the National Children's Bureau series of action research studies, where the research team attempted to evaluate experiments in which they also actively intervened. The three elements of the field-work setting – programme, process and product – were all important aspects of the research. The inevitable tensions between the demands of evaluation and those of close involvement raise difficult questions of research design. A model of action research is presented as a constructive way of reconciling the search for objectivity and reliability with the advantages of involvement in the definition of objectives and methods.
The Dissemination of Research Findings with Particular Reference to Housing
Authors: Tinker Anthea , Brion Marion 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe authors suggest that the importance of the dissemination of research findings in social policy has been greatly underestimated. The nature of the different agencies involved and the relationship between those who sponsor and those who ‘receive’ research are examined. This shows that the problems of dissemination are of two classes – those of principle and those of practice. Having discussed the principles, the authors suggest changes needed to improve practice so that more effective use may be made of research findings. Most of the examples are chosen from the field of housing but, where relevant, other fields of social policy are compared and contrasted.
Pricing, Insurance and the National Health Service
Authors: Maynard Alan 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTSince the birth of the National Health Service in 1948 there have been periodic discussions of the potential role of pricing and insurance in the United Kingdom health care system. This article is concerned with discussing the problems inherent in these mechanisms and it advocates more careful articulation of the cost and benefits of such policies. The first section gives a description of some quite recent proposals to extend the role of the pricing and insurance mechanisms which have been made by the British Medical Association and the McKinsey consultancy company. The second section uses economic analysis to show that both the pricing and the insurance mechanisms have inherent problems which may vitiate their efficiency in many western health care markets. The third section is concerned with the mechanisms by which the efficiency of the health care system can be improved, and radical experimentation is advocated. Without radical experimentation and the implementation of suitable incentive systems, inefficiency and inequality will continue in the National Health Service.
A Study of the BMA–TUC Joint Committee on Medical Questions, 1935–1939
Authors: Earwicker Ray 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe BMA (British Medical Association)–TUC (Trades Union Congress) Joint Committee on Medical Questions, established in 1936, was an experiment in consensus. It was the first attempt to cross the barriers in medical politics. In the 1930s the strategy of ‘administration rather than advocacy’ prompted the co-operation of the TUC with the BMA on medical questions of mutual interest. The operation of the partnership is explored here in the formulation of a scheme for a national maternity service acceptable to both parties. However, the reality of co-operation at the level of specific proposals was an insistence by the BMA on its own point of view. The TUC had to decide whether a joint scheme was worth the price. Although a scheme was eventually produced, as an experiment in consensus the committee had failed. To some extent the war obscured this failure, but the consensus itself was wrecked by the intransigence of the BMA and the hostility of the Labour movement, which was angry at the extent of the concessions which the TUC had made for a national maternity scheme.
Representing the Interests of the Public?: The Case of the Local Health Council in Scotland
Authors: Bochel Dorothy , MacLaran Morag 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe statutory function of local health councils in Scotland (and of community health councils in England and Wales) is to represent the interests of the public in the health service. This article, based on data from a fouryear research project financed by the Scottish Office, examines official and participants' assumptions and claims about the legitimacy of health councils, as at present constituted, to carry out this function. Clarification of the basis of their legitimacy would assist, it is argued, in the resolution of a central dilemma: How are councils to represent the interests of the public? The conclusion is reached that inadequate thought was given to developing theoretically sustainable arrangements. Several interpretations of representation are admixed in the rationale for the present system and they cannot be aggregated to produce a coherent defence of it.
The Origins of the Disabled Persons Employment Quota and its Symbolic Significance
Authors: Bolderson Helen 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article explores why some of the arrangements for the employment of disabled people are so resistant to change despite their evident shortcomings. From historical data it is argued that the negotiations which shaped the Disabled Persons Employment Act 1944 were motivated by sectional concerns which were detrimental to the interests of disabled people but that the legislation subsequently became symbolic of deeply felt and widely shared values. The implications of this for current policy options are discussed. An attempt is made to show how an analysis of the relationships between motives, actions and values in the policy-formation process can help to explain why some policies are both more ineffective and more persistent than others.
The Welfare Exchange Reconsidered
Authors: Uttley Stephen 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe objective of this article is to explore aspects of the nature and process of exchange in welfare systems. The welfare exchange was the focus of much discussion in the early 1970s stemming from the writings of Titmuss, Pinker and Pruger, and this article starts with a review of that debate. In searching for a more adequate theoretical framework it argues that Gouldner's work on reciprocity, beneficence and complementarity provides that framework. A model of exchange on an interpersonal level is put forward in which welfare exchanges are viewed as lying along a continuum reflecting the notions of reciprocity and beneficence, with exchanges at each end of the continuum being represented by the two types of complementarity. Dependency, power and disequilibrium are seen as crucial factors in the exchange process, and the total pattern of exchanges is shown to be strongly influenced by the pattern of resource generation and availability within which all exchanges occur. Different types of social services are located at various points along the exchange continuum, and these are seen as reflecting differing relationships between service donors and individual service recipients. The final section of the article is concerned with discussing the influence of the interaction between ‘servers’ employed by agencies and service recipients.
Territorial Need Indicators: A New Approach Part II
Authors: Bebbington A. C. , Davies Bleddyn 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn Part I of this article a typology of existing need indicators was developed. For the ‘meaning’ of a need indicator to be clear, the indicator must be theoretically based. More specifically, it should be rooted in theoretical conclusions about the policy of welfare interventions. In Part II, the theory of the need judgement as a cost-benefit decision is used to provide a basis for a need indicator. This method is then explicated with regard to social services provision for the elderly, so as to provide an indicator which is in fact a standard level of expenditure for social services departments in England and Wales.
Policies Into Practice: Intermediate Treatment and Community Service Compared
Authors: James Adrian L. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe philosophy and the policies for dealing with both juvenile and adult offenders in England and Wales have undergone a marked change in the last decade with the introduction of both the Children and Young Persons Act, 1969, and the Criminal Justice Act, 1972. The spirit behind the policies embodied in the first of these was intended to move juvenile offenders even further towards the provisions for children and young people in general and away from identification with adult offenders and the criminal process. In spite of this, many similarities remain between the two major innovations which emerged from these two pieces of legislation, which were intermediate treatment and community service. In terms of implementing these policies, however, wide differences have emerged in the speed, ease, and uniformity with which the different provisions have been introduced. Intermediate treatment, after a long struggle, is only just beginning to establish itself as a practical provision for juveniles whilst community service, introduced some years later, has now been fully implemented. This difference raises fundamental issues related to the implementation of certain areas of social policy. Although the failure of the 1969 Act to achieve the impact envisaged by its proponents has been attributed to its being only partially implemented and to lack of finance, amongst other things, comparison with the relatively successful introduction of community service suggests that there may also be important administrative factors underlying this failure which have been hitherto ignored.
The Public Finance of Medical and Dental Care in Newfoundland — Some Historical and Economic Considerations
Authors: Brown Malcolm C. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe article discusses the evolution of Newfoundland's health care system from the turn of the century to the present. During this time there were considerable changes in social conditions, political arrangements and the availability of public monies, all of which influenced the structure of the health care sector. In general terms, Newfoundland's health care system shifted from one involving low expenditures and many British type institutions to one involving high expenditures and American type institutions. The evidence suggests that the changes have been particularly beneficial for Newfoundland's merchant class, including the doctors and dentists, although some benefits have also accrued to patients and fishermen.
Employment Policies for Youth in Britain and the USA
Authors: Cohen Gaynor , Nicon Jaqi 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn both Britain and the USA a young person leaving school with few or no qualifications faces great difficulties in obtaining employment. A number of policies have been developed in both countries to help counter some of the problems to which an increasing proportion of young unemployed gives rise. This article examines some of these policies and their underlying assumptions about the causes of youth unemployment. It attempts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of programmes developed by both the training and education services and to see what relevance the more extensive youth policies in the USA may have for the problems and policies nurtured in Britain.
Theorising the Welfare State: The Case of Unemployment Insurance in Britain
Authors: Disney Richard 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article examines state provision of unemployment insurance (UI) in Britain. State intervention in insurance is normally perceived as stemming from the failure of private markets to meet socially expressed needs, but an examination of the historical development of state provision, and present practice, of UI in Britain suggest that this was not a central concern of state intervention. It is argued that an alternative explanation must stem from a theoretical model of the actions of the state, and various models primarily within a Marxist framework are described. The problems inherent in approaches which emphasize the relation between the needs of capitalist accumulation and the actions of the state are discussed, and it is argued that a more realistic account must take note of the heterogenous nature of the labour market in capitalist society and how, in such a society, the ideology which underpins social welfare policy is constructed. The article briefly examines recent political developments and argues that proposals for reform of UI must be located within a broader political strategy for economic and political transformation.
Freedom and the Redistribution of Resources
Authors: Jones Peter 
Published: January 2009

AbstractMuch of social policy involves a redistribution of resources. Such redistributive interferences with the market are often said to sacrifice freedom for the sake of competing goods such as humanity or social justice. The thesis of this paper is that this simple opposition of freedom and redistribution is mistaken. If freedom is defined empirically, redistributive transfers cannot simply remove freedom but must either transfer freedom from some to others or leave it unaffected. If freedom is defined normatively, it may be opposed to redistribution but that opposition then rests upon the value that gives freedom its meaning and not upon freedom as an autonomous value.
Inter-Sectoral Cost Comparisons: Day Care for the Elderly
Authors: Knapp Martin , Missiakoulis Spyros 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIt is often argued that there are significant differences in the costs of providing public and non-public services. However, these arguments have almost invariably been based on crude comparisons of bald expenditure figures of rather dubious validity. In this paper we describe and apply a conceptual framework which attempts to place such inter-sectoral comparisons on a more reliable basis. Our application is to day care services for elderly people provided by local authority social services departments, area health authorities and voluntary organizations, although the framework has much wider relevance. Our results provide clear evidence to refute the oft-made assumption that voluntary services are universally cheaper than their statutory counterparts. Standardizing costs for the dependency characteristics of users and the activities of day units, we find that voluntary-statutory cost differences are dependent upon the scale of operation. Small voluntary units certainly enjoy a cost advantage, but larger voluntary units are unlikely to be cheaper, and are probably more expensive, than local authority units of a similar scale.