ABSTRACT
In policy implementation terms, scientific rationality assumes that correct procedures will determine outcomes which can be predicted and then measured. Human agency would be one of those variables which are open to manipulation and prediction. Discretion will happen because human beings will create their own reality through relationship. The issue for human agency in the form of discretion and in the context of policy implementation is about effectiveness. Discretion is a powerful force in a domain such as social work practice. Practitioners in community care have the power, through their use of discretion, to determine the degree of authenticity in this concept of partnership. People who give a damn about the implementation of Community Care policy are interested in ensuring that it possesses some form of structure so that intended outcomes can be realised. Future participation, as envisaged by Reason, provides us with a useful conceptual framework to locate practice in policy implementation, managerial and social work practice.
