ABSTRACT
When New Labour came to power in May 1997, its relatively slender manifesto had less to say in relation to social services than most other social policy areas. Even those commitments which had been entered into – to set up a Social Care Council and to institute independent regulation of residential and domiciliary care – were modest in comparison to the scale of its ambitions elsewhere. Encompassed within the overall expenditure on social services were shifting patterns of responsibility between public and private forms of provision. While the majority of home care services were still provided directly by local authorities, the growth of independent providers had been rapid and substantial. The emphasis upon private provision during the 1980s and 1990s was felt in all social service sectors. Statistics showing the numbers and types of children’s homes in England for the year to 31 March 1997, for example, demonstrate that privately registered homes represented the second largest group of providers.
