ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the key issues affecting policy development in contemporary British welfare services in the light of recent studies of policy-making. The focus is on the processes through which policy options are taken up and evaluated rather than on the substantive content of the policies themselves. Drawing illustrations from the personal social services, the paper touches on the relevance of institutional arrangements, professional structures, information systems and quantitative techniques for the identification of problems, their exploration, and the implementation of solutions.
