ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is twofold. The first is to outline the changing policy agenda experienced by voluntary organizations in the UK since the advent of the contract culture. This begins by more specifically identifying that part of the voluntary sector that forms the focus of this study, i.e. organizations providing personal social services under contract with government agencies. It then proceeds to outline aspects of the changing environment that this part of the voluntary sector has experienced over the last 20 years from the Conservative through to the New Labour era. This is followed by an outline of the financial, workforce and employment relations implications from this changing environment. Here, the chapter identifies some of the gaps in our knowledge with regard to employment issues. In doing so, it identifies a series of specific normative and cost-based pressures on employment relations policies in the sector generated from state agencies. Moreover, it highlights specific possibilities and circumstances where voluntary sector organizations may have the capacity to resist such pressures.
