ABSTRACT
In the 1960s and early 1970s national government indulged in a spree of inquiries and reforms aimed at achieving large-scale reforms in the social services and local government. The 1960s provide two opportunities in the field of local government reform to examine the process of planning and implementing change, and the underlying perceptions and beliefs of those responsible. The formal task of the Committee on the Management of Local Government was to consider how local government might 'continue to attract and retain people of the calibre necessary to ensure its maximum effectiveness'. The Labour government issued its first consultative document, proposing a unified service, in 1968. Empirical studies of local government and social services institutions show that they are in no way immune from the problems of compliance and conflict which are everyday concerns in commercial enterprises.
