ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion on some of the main historical factors that have played a role in shaping the contemporary caring environment. It then presents an overview of the historical development of care in the British context, and the ebb and flow of the voluntary sector within this process. Emphasis is now placed on care support located within the community, rather than within institutional spaces, with a concomitant rejelevation in the role of voluntary, private and informal care supports. Prior to the 19th century, social care in UK as a whole was characterised largely by informal community care. By the mid-19th century, the economic opportunities created by industrialisation, combined with the emergence of the new industrial and commercial class, led philosophers such as Smith and Bentham to extol the virtues of a laissez faire economy – such an approach was argued to be a prerequisite for economic prosperity.
