ABSTRACT
Four major pieces of legislation were implemented on 5 July 1948. They were the National Insurance and the National Health Service Acts of 1946 and the National Assistance and the Children Acts of 1948. Thus, by the summer of 1944 clear and opposing positions on the question of children's services had been occupied by the Ministry of Health and the Home Office. It is well known that Lady Allen wrote to The Times in July 1944, calling for a committee of inquiry into the poor standards and lack of integration in the services for deprived children. A Children Bill made its first parliamentary appearance in the early part of 1948. Despite such continuities in the civil service – and indeed in parliamentary procedures – it is obvious that the political climate has altered. To expect the process of change to conform any longer with comfortable assumptions about liberal reform is unrealistic.
