ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses changes in the organisation of two forms of social services in the United Kingdom: the provision of social security and the provision of social care. It seeks to trace the distinctive patterns of reform in the provision of these two services and examines the differences and similarities in the processes of restructuring. The chapter focuses on the period of intense public service reform in the 1980s and 1990s. The imagery of ‘modernization’ has formed a central thread in ‘New Labour’ approaches to public service reform. Since the creation of the Benefits Agency in 1991 the delivery of social security services has been subject to a series of sweeping reforms exemplifying nearly all of the main features of the New Public Management. The creation of the Benefits Agency was a significant element in the Conservative government’s ‘Next Steps’ programme of reform.
