ABSTRACT
While we must beware of attributing a greater degree of coherence to government philosophies than their practical expression would warrant, two central political themes have been of particular relevance to the development of personal social services over the past decade. The first derives from the wider attempt to restructure the welfare state: to stimulate a more central role for the voluntary and private sectors and to encourage a greater degree of individual rather than state reliance. Successive Conservative administrations have demonstrated a strong ideological distaste for large, monolithic bureaucracies which they believe deny choice and limit innovation, and have made clear their admiration for the competitive market. Their consistent failure to distinguish between the role of the organized voluntary sector on the one hand and informal Voluntary effort’ on the other moreover reveals a determination to underpin the public provision of social care with a widespread reliance on informal care networks. This shift in the balance of care has been legitimated by the political drive to re-establish the centrality of the family in social life.
