ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the political and economic considerations behind government decisions on self help. It focuses on England as opposed to the United Kingdom as a whole since the authors' project participants have first-hand experience of the situation here rather than in the other parts of the UK. There are certain important characteristics of the systems which are unique to each of the four constituent countries of the UK and the English situation will by no means be totally applicable to the other three. The Self Help Alliance, a central government funded programme, in financial terms dwarfs the two independent schemes. As part of its policy on community care, the Department of Health and Social Security provided £1.6 million over 1985–88 for eighteen projects across England of local support for self help in health and social services.
