News Release

19 November 2001: For Immediate Release

Social Care and Health: a New Deal?

What has been happening to public services over the last fifty years? Have the high aspirations of the post-war welfare state disappeared? Have we lost any idea of collectivised support for bad risks? Has the ideal of a compassionate society disappeared in an increasingly prosperous and selfish society? And what is likely to happen to the delivery of public services in the light of the NHS Plan and increasing pressure from central government on professionals and managers alike?

These were some of the themes discussed at a seminar held at Policy Studies Institute earlier this year - the papers from which are published on 19 November. The aim of the seminar was to look behind organisational change to see how values and culture in health and social care have evolved over the years and to examine what the future holds.

In this important collection of papers:

• Nick Timmins, Public Policy Editor, Financial Times, argues that, although there has been a decline in altruism and growth in individualism since Beveridge's day, altruism has not disappeared and individualism has a long way to go to triumph. However, the current mood of 'some restoration of the desire for collective, tax-funded services feels fragile', and he suggests that if public services are not seen to have improved significantly within five years, 'the current support for the model could prove its last hurrah'.
  
  
• Captain Bill Cochrane, Head of External Relations, The Salvation Army, examines a report commissioned by the Salvation Army on the 'paradox of prosperity', which shows that despite an overall rise in prosperity, people in Britain are still highly vulnerable to modern-day life pressures. He argues that 'far from being an isolated threat for those below the poverty line, these pressures represent a threat at all levels of the wealth scale', and stresses the need to question any false distinction between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' causes.
  
  
• Jane Lewis, Barnett Professor of Social Policy, University of Oxford, and Moira Gibb, President of ADSS and Executive Director of Social Services and Housing, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, consider what has been achieved since the Seebohm Report which said that social services should 'enable the greatest possible number of individuals to act reciprocally, giving and receiving service for the well-being of the whole community'. Moira Gibb concludes that social services departments have achieved a great deal more than they are given credit for in the past thirty years. But Jane Lewis, in her historical analysis of the shifting boundaries between the roles and responsibilities of health and social services concludes that the NHS Plan has tipped the balance of power towards health services and that 'there is no longer the confidence that social work has a model that can deliver in the new policy logic'.
  
  
• David Hunter, Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Durham, examines the potential impact of the NHS Plan on health and social services in the future and states that the government's reform agenda signals the urgent need for a new approach to managing change. He argues that politicians should 'exercise a self-denying ordinance to avoid meddling and interfering in every aspect of health care delivery following adverse media comment'. He concludes that government 'will also need to accept that effective leadership is increasingly on the frontline of complex systems… In a top-down, command and control system of management and accountability the frontline remains seriously unempowered to assume responsibility. Long-standing failings here cannot be remedied through simplistic top-down control mechanisms'.
  
  
• Liam Hughes, Strategic Director of Social Services, Bradford Metropolitan District Council, analyses the challenges to social services professionals in the light of radical changes to the organisation of social services delivery. He looks at the impact of joint planning, mergers and outsourcing, as other organisations take on or share traditional social services roles. He argues that social workers and social care practitioners have a great deal to offer if they 'move quickly and with confidence into the heartland of the new territory'.

Contact: Jo O'Driscoll, on 020 7468 2269 or 07802 181249

Notes to editors

1) Social Care and Health: A New Deal?, edited by Professor Isobel Allen, is available from Policy Studies Institute on 020 7468 0468.

2) The book includes the following contributions: "State, Society and Compassion: Altruism and Individualism" Nick Timmins, Public Policy Editor, Financial Times * "The Paradox of Prosperity" Captain Bill Cochrane, Head of External Relations, The Salvation Army * "Social Services Departments and the Health/Social Care Boundary: Players or Pawns?" Professor Jane Lewis, Barnett Professor of Social Policy, University of Oxford * "Seebohm: An Ambition Ahead of its Time?" Moira Gibb, President of ADSS and Executive Director of Social Services and Housing, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea * "Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something New" Professor David Hunter, Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Durham * "New Culture, New Territory, New Professions?" Liam Hughes, Strategic Director of Social Services, Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

3) These papers are based on proceedings from the 2001 Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS)/ Policy Studies Institute (PSI) Group seminar. The Group has been active for over 20 years, and is a unique, independent forum outside the main political and operational structures. The ADSS/PSI annual seminars are designed to identify emerging policy issues and to stimulate debate among practitioners, researchers, academics and policy makers on the most topical issues in social policy. Previous publications arising from the seminars include Rationing of Health and Social Care (1993); The Future of Social Services (1994); Targeting Those Most in Need: Winners and Losers (1995); and Best Value: Regulation and Risk (1998).

4) PSI is a registered educational charity (no. 313819) and has no association with any political party, pressure group or commercial interest.