bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Keyworkers for Elderly People in the Community: Case Managers and Care Co-ordinators
Authors: Dant Tim , Gearing Brian 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn the United Kingdom a range of services for elderly people in the community has developed that is delivered by a variety of professionals and administered within different organisations. This has resulted in a problem of co-ordinating services to meet the individual needs of the most frail elderly people. In the United States ‘case management’ has been introduced as a way of improving the co-ordination of care. Despite structural differences in the provision of health and social services between the United States and the United Kingdom, the concept of case management has influenced the design of a number of innovatory schemes in the United Kingdom, including the Gloucester Care for Elderly People at Home project (CEPH). These innovatory schemes have demonstrated the need for a ‘keyworker’ and clarified the tasks that are involved in taking responsibility for co-ordinating services to meet the needs of elderly people at risk of failing to cope at home. There is, however, a danger of proliferating the complexity of service provision by creating a new breed of professional; an alternative might be to alter the responsibilities, attitudes and team orientation of existing professional workers so as to include taking on the key worker role for some of their clients.
Patterns of Health and Illness Amongst Lone Parents
Authors: Popay Jennie , Jones Gill 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn 1969, the British Government established the Finer Committee to consider ‘the problems of one parent families in our society’. Its report, published in 1974, concentrated on the economic circumstances of these families, though it also looked at other issues including the welfare implications for children. Since then there has been further research in Britain focused on the economic circumstances of one parent families and continued interest in the health, welfare and development of children in these families. What was missing from the deliberations of the Finer Committee and is still omitted from subsequent research activities, is any substantial consideration of the health and welfare implications of lone parenthood for the adults involved. Yet such research is important. Firstly, one parent families are a numerically important group amongst British families caring for dependent children and it is predictable that they will continue to be so. Secondly, research into the social and economic circumstances and the health experience of lone parents, is also essentially research into the nature and causes of gender inequalities, because lone parents are disproportionately female. Finally, research into patterns of health and illness amongst lone parents would also be relevant to those planning a range of health and social services. This paper therefore seeks to contribute to knowledge about the health status of lone parents. Using data from a national annual household survey (the OPCS General Household Survey) we describe the subjective experience of health and illness amongst lone mothers and fathers. This is compared to the experience of parents in couple households and of different groups of lone parents according to sex, marital status, socio-economic circumstances and ‘normative’ gender roles in order to explore the relative importance of this group of factors in the aetiology of the patterns described.
Getting on Their Bikes: Teenagers Leaving Home in Scotland in the 1980s
Authors: Furlong Andy , Cooney George H. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTNew restrictions on the payment of income support and housing benefit to young people are likely to affect their ability to leave the family home. Yet little is known about the sorts of young people who leave home and the likely effects of the changes. This paper uses nationally representative data to look at the characteristics of Scottish teenagers who have left home, the reasons they gave for leaving home and the sorts of problems they faced on leaving. We also examine the labour market experiences of teenage leavers, and compare their experiences with young people who remained in the family home.
Poor People, Council Housing and the Right to Buy
Authors: James Simon , Jordan Bill , Kay Helen 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTData from the authors' qualitative study of decision-making in low income households casts new light on council house sales in a least-favoured housing estate. Under pressure from rising rents and rumours of privatisation, poor tenants are deciding to buy their houses as a way of securing their future in the area and controlling their personal environment, rather than as an escape from a residual ‘ghetto’ of welfare housing. This raises a number of issues in relation to current theories about housing tenure, especially those which distinguish sharply between the material and ideological bases of owner occupation and local authority tenancy. The authors argue that their respondents' reasons for wanting to buy do not constitute a rejection of collectivism as much as an attempt to preserve the endangered advantages of their situation on the estate.
Welfare Rights Work into the 1990s—a Changing Agenda
Authors: Alcock Pete , Shepherd Jane , Stewart Gill , Stewart John 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe authors discuss the development of welfare rights advisory work in Britain, tracing its origins from the Community Development Projects of the late 1960s to services which are funded mainly by local government. Changes in social security legislation in 1980 introduced a largely non-discretionary regulated scheme which was quickly exploited by welfare rights advisers to maximise the take-up of single payments. Advisers and social workers were blamed for generating a deluge of claims by informing claimants of their right to extra benefit. Hence, in 1986, the government restricted entitlement to single payments. It is argued, on the basis of a survey of single payment queries made to welfare rights advisory agencies, that those restrictions foreshadowed the coming of the social fund—with its discretion, cash limit and extremely limited eligibility. The implications for welfare rights work in this changed climate are considered.
The Corporatisation of the United States Welfare State
Authors: Stoesz David , Karger Howard 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article examines the increasing importance of human service corporations within the American welfare state. In particular, the article investigates the historical and philosophical background of the corporatisation of welfare, the expanding social welfare market, and the scope of human service corporations. The consequence of corporatisation, including standardisation, commodification, and the oligarchic nature of human services are also examined. Lastly, the authors explore the implications of corporatisation for the future of the US welfare state.
Measuring Living Standards Using Existing National Data Sets
Authors: Hutton Sandra 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe study reported on in this paper used existing data to create a broad measure of living standards as advocated by Townsend (1979) in developing his concept of relative deprivation. Linked data from the General Household Survey and the Family Expenditure Survey was used to compare the living standards of households at different income levels. A particular focus of the study was the living standards of households on supplementary benefit (as it was at the time of the surveys). Analyses showed that in general they score less well on individual indicators of living standards than other households of the same type on low incomes. A summary index was developed which indicated the similarity of standards of living for households on supplementary benefit (SB) irrespective of household type. The specific indices constructed for each of the family types investigated suggested that families on SB with children have a relatively lower standard of living than other families with children whereas elderly households on supplementary benefit are not so deprived in comparison with other elderly households.
Selectivity and Targeting in Income Support: The Australian Experience
Authors: Saunders Peter 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe Australian income support system is often characterised as one of the most selective in the Western industrialised world. This paper examines the sense in which the Australian system is selective, and discusses the distinction between selectivity and targeting in income support provisions. Developments in social security outlays and recipient numbers over the last two decades are compared with those occurring since 1983, in order that the nature and impact of recent policies introduced to increase targeting can be identified. The analysis indicates that increases in recipient numbers have been the dominant factor underlying the past growth in social security expenditure. The distinction between selectivity and targeting of income support provisions is then explained with reference to the concepts of eligibility and entitlement. A framework is developed to illustrate how recent policies have restrained the growth in social security recipient numbers by policies which have increased income support targeting. These moves have not always produced a consistently more selective system of income support, an issue which is explored with the use of an index of the degree of selectivity of social security expenditures developed specifically for this purpose.
The Importance of Assessing the Effectiveness of Care: The Case of Hospices
Authors: Goddard Maria K. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe hospice sector has expanded and diversified rapidly in recent years and has become associated with the provision of highly specialised, good quality care for the dying. However, as resources for health and social care are increasingly stretched, it will become necessary to demonstrate, rather than to assert, that the hospice sector provides superior care. This paper considers critically the methodology that has been used in the evaluation of the effectiveness of hospice care, focusing on the design of evaluations, what is measured, who measures it and how it has been measured in practice.
Dual Welfare and Sex Segregation of Access to Social Benefits: Income Maintenance Policies in the UK, the US, the Netherlands and Sweden
Authors: Sainsbury Diane 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn examining the sex of beneficiaries of income maintenance programmes, several country-specific studies suggest a pattern of segregation between women and men in access to types of benefit. Men are more likely to be recipients of social insurance benefits, whilst women often must rely on means-tested programmes, and frequently their claims to insurance benefits are via their husband. This conclusion is re-examined through a comparison of insurance and means-tested programmes in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The purpose is to determine, first, to what extent such a pattern of segregation emerges in the four countries and, second, what mechanisms operate to exclude or include women. The comparison reveals that the Swedish case deviates from the other three countries, and policy constructions inhibiting and promoting greater equality between women and men in access to social benefits are discussed. The results also have theoretical implications for dual welfare as an analytical framework and feminist thinking about the welfare state.
Developing the Mixed Economy of Care: Emerging Issues for Voluntary Organisations
Authors: Lewis Jane 
Published: January 2009

AbstractResponses from both voluntary organisations and statutory authorities to the community care legislation and the policy guidance stressed the importance of maintaining the concept of ‘partnership’ as local authorities move towards becoming ‘enabling authorities’. Using data from intensive observation and interviewing in two inner and two outer London Boroughs, this paper examines the nature of the redefined partnership and the implications of the emerging contract culture for voluntary organisations.
The Hidden Agenda: Abortion Politics in Israel
Authors: Yishai Yael 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe paper examines the formulation and implementation of abortion politics in Israel. Liberalisation of abortion, triggered by the need to enable poor women to terminate unwanted pregnancies, enjoyed wide consensus. The highly controversial repeal of the social-cause clause, prompted by coalition bargaining, was aimed at encouraging fertility. Both policies failed to realise intentions of decision-makers. Liberalisation of abortion did not result in population control among the poor; restriction of abortion did not lead to increasing birth rates. The reasons for the unsuccessful impact are grounded in the hidden agenda, caused by the incompatibility between two policy goals: curbing birth rates among the poor and encouraging fertility among the Jewish population on the whole. The hidden agenda hindered the achievement of impact: population control policy was not followed up by family planning. Population growth policy was not followed up by economic incentives.
Area, Class and Health: Should we be Focusing on Places or People?
Authors: Macintyre Sally , Maciver Sheila , Sooman Anne 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIn Britain there has been a long tradition of research into associations between area of residence and health. Rarely has this involved investigating socio-economic or cultural features of areas that might influence health; usually studies use area level data, for example about specific pathogens or about levels of deprivation, as surrogates for individual level data, rather than being interested in the areas themselves. This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between area and health. It advocates directly studying features of the local social and physical environment which might promote or inhibit health, illustrating this approach with some findings from a study in the West of Scotland, and suggests that improvements in public health might be achieved by focusing on places as well as on people.
Social Security or Economic Insecurity? The Concentration of Unemployment (and Research) Within Households
Authors: Irwin Sarah , Morris Lydia 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe social security structure has been seen as a serious disincentive to the employment of women married to unemployed men. The implied significance of this disincentive is not apparent from verbal accounts, where only a minority of such women cite social security considerations as having any direct relevance in their own labour force experience. Recent research, critical of the social security model, has been conducted with a view to exploring the employment strategies of couples. In such research, economic structure is seen as the context of household employment strategies but not, it appears, as part of their substance; household level processes and ‘external’ economic processes are separated. In this respect, such approaches parallel the social security model. The present paper is based on an analysis of the household circumstances and employment histories of 790 couples in Hartlepool. Our findings suggest that ‘strategies’ regarding household income maintenance are patterned in relation to labour demand and occupational opportunity. This association contributes to the coincidence of spouses' employment status and is indicative of the problems of separating employment demand and labour supply processes, a separation which leads the social policy literature to overstate the significance of social security disincentives to employment.
Efficient Targeting of Community Care: The Case of the Home Help Service
Authors: Bebbington Andrew , Davies Bleddyn 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTBy 1985 community care, of which the home help service is one of the cornerstones, was on the brink of a major change which would fundamentally affect targeting. The new focus is a concentration on those in greatest need, responsiveness to the needs of carers, and to the potential for the self financing of care. The analysis given here indicates that huge changes in targeting of the service will have been needed from the situation in 1985 to meet these new policies, changes which might be expected to move the service away from its traditional role of monitoring the very old living alone. Analysis of the period between 1980 and 1985, using the General Household Survey, shows that the targeting effect of new policies is not easy to predict. The slight increase in home care during the period did not reflect an improvement in targeting on the demonstrably most needy, but instead apparently spread the service more widely. Re-examination of equity, territorial and gender issues shows that only limited progress had been made. Indeed, gender discrimination may even have increased.While the UK may not wish to go as far as some other countries in allocating community care according to fixed eligibility criteria, come what may, targeting concepts will be increasingly salient for monitoring the community care policy's achievement.
Poverty Measurement and the Within-Household Distribution: Agenda for Action
Authors: Jenkins Stephen P. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTMainsteam poverty analysis is deficient because it ignores important within-household aspects. This point has been made by many, and stressed by feminists especially, yet mainstream poverty measurement practice remains unchanged. Why is this? What should we be doing? This paper examines anew the case for taking within-household factors into account in poverty measurement. The analysis reveals a number of unresolved issues including some problems with recent feminist arguments, but concludes that there is a good case for changing current practice. To demonstrate that this is feasible, four research projects are described. These are my agenda for action.
A Nation of Inheritors? Housing Inheritance, Wealth and Inequality in Britain
Authors: Hamnett Chris 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the growth of housing inheritance in Britain since the late 1960s using Inland Revenue statistics. It also uses survey evidence to examine the uneven distribution of inheritance by housing tenure, class and region, and assesses its implications for consumption cleavage theory. It argues that at present the social distribution of housing inheritance is far from equal, benefiting home owners and the professional and managerial classes, but that, over the next 40 years, it will become much more widespread as the post-war generation of home owners bequeathes property. It is likely, however, that the children of tenants will be generally excluded from housing inheritance which is largely confined to the children of home owners.
Muddle or Mendacity? The Beveridge Committee and the Poverty Line
Authors: Veit-Wilson John H. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe Beveridge Committee of 1942 is often assumed to have based its proposals for social security scales on a poverty line at the ‘human needs’ or social participation level. This is because of its ‘principle of adequacy of benefit in amount and time’. Using the Committee's working papers, this paper describes the discussions of the committee about the ideas of need and measures of poverty to be used. The evidence shows that the Committee knew very well that its proposed benefit levels were not enough for social participation. Because it consciously implemented the principles of minimum subsistence and less-eligibility in the face of inadequate wages, the proposed scales were arguably more austere even than Rowntree's ‘primary poverty’ standard which both he and Beveridge acknowledged was not sufficient to meet human social needs. Whether muddle or mendacity, this mystification has had serious consequences for the poor in Britain.
Labour Exchanges and the Labour Reserve in Turn of the Century Social Reform
Authors: Mansfield Malcolm 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article attempts to describe a major debate in turn of the century social reform through a close reading of the published works of Charles Booth, J.A. Hobson, William Beveridge, A.C. Pigou and others. My aim is to reconstruct the emergence and elaboration of a theory of labour market disorganisation, understood as the absence of effective norms governing employment relationships in urban labour markets subject to chronic over-supply. In so doing I shall take issue with a tendency in the historiography of social policy to fragment this debate into the development of two distinct conceptual frameworks corresponding to the social problems of poverty and unemployment more or less as we know them today.
Affordability for Housing Association Tenants. A Key Issue for British Social Housing Policy
Authors: Kearns Ade 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTAs a result of changes to the financial regime for housing associations, affordability has become a major issue of debate in social rented housing in Britain. This paper assesses the implications of trying to construct a finance system for housing associations based on a regime of ‘affordable rents’ and the ‘safety net’ of Housing Benefits but with the state declining to define the central concept of affordability. Using examples of a number of Western countries, and empirical evidence from the sector in Scotland, the present position is criticised, and a route out of the policy vacuum is suggested. This is founded on the premise that housing is a means rather than an end, within a broader social policy. Given the political constraints, one solution lies in studies of the expenditure patterns and standards of living of different groups of housing association tenants, and in the creation of a sector-specific organisational subsidy to be available in addition to the usual producer- and consumer-subsidies.
Deprivation
Authors: Townsend Peter 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTWidening inequality in the distribution of resources, higher rates of unemployment and deteriorating conditions in the inner cities have concentrated attention in Britain, and elsewhere in Europe, upon the idea and exact meaning of ‘deprivation’. This scientific concept is used extensively not only in the analysis of social conditions but also, in an applied form, as an instrument of policy in allocating resources to particular regions, areas and services. This paper argues that the indicators which are chosen to represent the phenomenon are often unduly restricted and even involve double counting. As a result the distribution and severity of deprivation seems to be seriously misperceived and resources misallocated. A review of the available studies shows how the concept might be treated more coherently in relation to that of poverty.
Evaluating Adequacy: The Potential of Budget Standards
Authors: Bradshaw Jonathan , Mitchell Deborah , Morgan Jane 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTSince Beveridge, budget standards have been neglected in British social policy research. Empirical effort has concentrated on developing social indicator methods of investigating relative poverty. This paper explores the potential of budget standards for assessing whether the scale rates of supplementary benefit are adequate. Three applications of budget standard methodology are presented.