ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of personal social service (PSS) planning since 1960. It explores the introduction of Community Care Plans as implemented by the National Health Service (NHS) and Community Care Act 1990. The chapter examines the influence of political, managerial and market logics and systems on this process. Joint Finance was, in effect, a proportion of central government expenditure on the health service which had to be spent on local authority social care services. Joint Finance was an important policy development in the evolution of community care. It was characterised by an enthusiastic launch from Barbara Castle as Secretary for State for Social Services. It remained as a long term policy that transferred hundreds of millions of pounds of NHS expenditure into the PSS and relocated resources from hospitals into the community. The Audit Commission was part of Mrs Margaret Thatcher’s strategy to make local government more accountable to central government and the Treasury.
