ABSTRACT
Local authorities are granted their statutory powers to provide services by the central government and partly depend on the exchequer for finance for the services. Therefore the development of local authority services for the elderly must be viewed against the backcloth of national policy and national decisions on relative priorities for different services. This chapter outlines the main developments at national level between 1945 and 1965. The material for this chapter is taken from annual reports of central government departments except where otherwise indicated.
