ABSTRACT
As part of the ‘welfare state settlement’ (Thane, 1986), the 1946 National Assistance Act conferred certain social care responsibilities on local government for the first time, including responsibility for the welfare of older people. But, for a variety of political and social reasons, this policy field in the UK, as in other developed countries, tended to be a relatively low-spending priority in the years after the war (see Kendall et al., 2003a). Certainly in Britain, compared with health and income support (nationalized by central government), or housing (where we have seen that local government was taking a very strong lead with central support), initial public investment in this area was relatively limited, with no wholesale public sector ‘takeover’ or high-profile political drive for the expansion of public ownership and control. Instead, in a low-key way, local authorities were empowered to meet older people’s needs both through building up their own portfolio of services, and by funding voluntary organizations to do so (Brenton, 1985).
