Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:31:36.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A New Era for Social Policy: A New Enlightenment or a New Leviathan?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Abstract

A succession of Acts of Parliament passed between 1988 and 1990 mark the most decisive break in British social policy since the period between 1944 and 1948. This paper examines the extent to which common principles underlie this legislation. One of the most important common elements has been the reduction in the powers of local government and in the presumption that local authorities should be the main providers of social welfare outside the social security system. Schools, housing estates and social care services are to be given greater powers to run themselves or to become separate organisations. Local authorities are to use their resources to fund and contract with external agencies. The possible outcomes of this change in governance are discussed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Audit Commission (1986), Making a Reality of Community Care, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Barnes, J. and Barr, N. (1988), Strategy for Higher Education: The Alternative White Paper, David Hume Paper No. 10, David Hume Institute and Suntory–Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Coons, J. and Sugarman, S. (1978), Education by Choice: The Case for Family Control, University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Department of Education and Science (DES) (1987a), Grant Maintained Schools: Consultation Paper, DES, London.Google Scholar
DES (1987b), Financial Delegation to Schools: Consultation Paper, DES, London.Google Scholar
DES (1987c), Admission of Pupils to Maintained Schools, DES, London.Google Scholar
DES (1987d), The Organisation of Education in Inner London, DES, London.Google Scholar
DES (1988a), Mathematics for Ages 5–16, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
DES (1988b), Science for Ages 5–16, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
DES (1988c), English for Ages 5–16, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Department of the Environment (1989), Tenants in the Lead, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1989), Caring for People (Cm 849), HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Gilbert, N. and Gilbert, B. (1989), The Enabling State: Modern Welfare Capitalism in America, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Gosden, P.H.J.H. (1976), Education in the Second World War, Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Griffith, J. (1988), The Attack on Higher Education, Council for Academic Freedom, London.Google Scholar
Griffiths Report (1988), Community Care: Agenda for Action, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Hadley, R. and Hatch, S. (1981), Social Welfare and the Failure of the State, Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A.O. (1970), Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) (1986), Looking at School Performance: Actual and Predicted Examination Scores, Research and Statistics Report RS 1058/86, ILEA, London.Google Scholar
ILEA (1987), Actual and Predicted Examination Scores, Research and Statistical Report RS 1129/87, ILEA, London.Google Scholar
Islington Borough Council (1987), Service Provision and Living in Islington, Market and Opinion Research International (MORI) Ltd, London.Google Scholar
Kramer, R. and Grossman, B. (1987), ‘Contracting for Social Services: Process Management and Resource Dependencies”, Social Services Review, 03.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawlor, S. (1988), Opting Out: A Guide to Why and How, Centre for Policy Studies, London.Google Scholar
Layfield Committee (1976), Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Local Government Finance, Cmnd 6453, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Mount, F. (1986), The Practice of Liberty, Conservative Political Centre, London.Google Scholar
National Consumer Council (1988), Survey of Council Tenants, Gallup, London.Google Scholar
Niskanen, W. (1971), Bureaucracy and Representative Government, Aldine Atherton, New York.Google Scholar
Power, A. (1987), Property Before People, Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Power, A. (1989), Under New Management: The Experience of Thirteen Islington Tenant Management Cooperatives, Priority Estates Project, London.Google Scholar
Ridley, N. (1988), The Local Right: Enabling Not Providing, Centre for Policy Studies, London.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, M. et al. (1986), ‘Competitive bidding and states' purchase of services”, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 5: 2, 245–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tulloch, G. (1985), The Politics of Bureaucracy, Public Affairs Press, Washington.Google Scholar