ABSTRACT
2. It is in practice hard to translate the political aspirations and objectives of a manifesto into a coherent strategy for social policies which a Government can effectively implement. Resources are always scarce. Economic constraints and the constraints of the legislative programme limit the speed at which things can be done. There are limits to how fast the institutions both of central and local government can respond to change. Many of the most intractable problems affect more than one department, and involve central government, local authorities and other bodies. There is a serious lack of information about many social problems, and thus no reliable basis for assessing need or the effectiveness of provision. There is no effective mechanism for determining coherent and consistent priorities in the field of social policy generally.
