ABSTRACT
Social care for adults and children in the UK that is provided by the state is the responsibility of local government, although most of the funding comes from central government. Gender relationships in respect of care are triangular. This chapter focuses on women as paid workers and as clients, but the new policy of community care paid considerable lip service to the work of women as unpaid carers and mothers. It describes the changes brought about by the major piece of legislation affecting the care of adults - the 1990 National Health Service and Community Carel Act and the rapid developments that have taken place in childcare policy since 1996. It is possible to identify some of the major shifts that serve to contextualise the changes in social care for the elderly, some of which are also crucial to undertaking childcare policy.
