ABSTRACT
Historians of social policy often tend to write about the history of welfare provision as though state welfare and private charity were entirely unrelated phenomena. This tendency is particularly apparent in accounts of the history of social policy in the twentieth century, which tend to concentrate almost entirely on the development of the statutory welfare services and the ultimate emergence of the ‘welfare state’.1 Most historians would agree that the Liberal welfare reforms of 1906-11 marked a watershed in the history of welfare provision, and that after their introduction the state became the ‘senior partner’ in the welfare firm.2 However, the important point about this partnership is that it was a partnership, and this means that it is important to understand the roles played by both partners if we are fully to understand the history of welfare provision.
