From an examination of the available data it appears that the present Workmen's Compensation system in the United States is providing a deprivation livelihood for the work-injured and their survivors and is failing to meet its objectives as a service delivery system because it results in a gross misallocation of public costs. It is not providing coverage at all to many workers most exposed to industrial injury and is not getting benefits to an important proportion of those entitled to them. At the same time, it is providing dependable but undisclosed profits to private insurance carriers.

This paper was presented as background for discussion at the 8th Annual Conference of the Social Administration Association in Edinburgh in July 1974. The aim was to produce as comprehensive a review as possible within reasonable length and the rather awkward title is intended to convey that the paper covers activities, notably in the field of management, which somewhat stretch the normal meaning of ‘research’. An introduction briefly sketches as background the financial and physical scale of the Department's social security responsibilities. The remainder of the paper is laid out in four sections (corresponding to the way the Department is organized at headquarters); one dealing with social security research as the phrase would perhaps be most usually understood; one with statistics; one with the specialized work of the Economic Adviser's Office; and one with managerial research and allied activities. As indicated at the heading, this last section, which anyway did not claim to be comprehensive, has for present purposes been drastically curtailed, touching only on two topics which are, perhaps – especially the work of the Supplementary Benefit Commission's Inspectorate – of more general than specialized management interest. Otherwise the paper remains, apart from editorial changes, as presented to the Conference, and facts and figures do not take account of developments since then.

Social values are clearly an important influence on the development and administration of social policies. In discussions about social values, however, different political groupings use the same words but with different meanings. This article compares and contrasts ‘ideal-type’ liberal and socialist conceptions of the three social values of freedom, individualism and equality. It then goes on to discuss how far social policy reflects these differing conceptions. The conclusion drawn is that, so far as social policy is concerned, in the clashes between liberal and socialist conceptions of social values liberal values tend to emerge as dominant.

Changes in the administrative structure of the National Health Service and in policy concerning the role of the psychiatric hospitals in the delivery of mental health care mean that local authorities have a growing responsibility for providing a range of supportive services for people who formerly would have lived for long periods in mental hospitals. Sheltered living environments will be an essential part of these services but there is little systematic information regarding the kind of care required in terms of the needs of the adult mentally ill. A pilot study is reported of the non-hospital residential care experienced by mentally ill adults who were financially assisted by three South London boroughs. The findings are related to a wider study of new long-stay patients in mental hospitals, some of whom could be discharged if alternative services were available. The appropriateness of short-term rehabilitation hostels as opposed to long-term maintenance environments of various kinds is discussed. The study is now being extended to include other forms of care including group homes, sheltered housing schemes and a wider range of local authority hostels than was encountered at the pilot stage.