ABSTRACT
In 1991 unprecedented reforms were introduced into the British National Health Service (NHS) and the related sectors of primary health and community care. Whatever the merits and demerits of these reforms, they represent both a major challenge and an opportunity to the social research community. There are issues about what precisely the challenge amounts to, whether social scientists are in a position to meet the challenge, and what needs to happen to maximize the undoubted opportunities which exist. These issues ultimately go beyond the confines of the social research community since it is in the interests of better public policy that research be commissioned and that its fruits inform the policy-making process.
