Showing papers in "Social Policy & Administration in 1985"

Disabled People and Employment

Abstract: After a review of the history of measures to help disabled people since the end of the first world war, the author examines the situation of disabled persons during a period of high unemployment. He discusses the failure as he sees it of strategies introduced after the 1944 Act, and points to the new strategies now required.

The Cost of High Unemployment

Abstract: In response to R. A. B. Leaper's challenge in the last issue of this journal we present a report which we have just prepared for the BBC North-East. We believe that a better understanding of the costs of high unemployment to the country is needed to inform decisions on how much we can afford to pay to tackle the problem. In the final section of the paper we show how this evidence can be of value in costing policy options. The last detailed costings of unemployment were published in 1982 for the financial year 1981/82. In February 1982 it appears that a political decision was taken not to publish the latest Treasury estimate updating their 1981 calculations. Since then numerous parliamentary questions on the subject have received very limited answers disputing the validity of the whole exercise.

Health and Social Services Planning

Abstract: The authors outline joint planning between health and social services since 1974, examining the joint planning meetings of two different types. They identify certain features of small group meetings which could ease joint planning arrangements.

Towards a Two‐dimensional Analysis of Welfare Ideologies

Abstract: This article provides a critical analysis of some accounts of welfare ideologies which have appeared in the last eight years. It is argued that in these accounts welfare ideologies have been presented as ranged along a continuum from “anti-collectivist”, “market liberal”, or “residual” to “Marxist” or “structural” with intermediate positions variously described as “political liberal”, “reluctant collectivist”, “social democratic”, “Fabian socialist”, or “institutional”. It is further argued that these one-dimensional accounts are seriously misleading because they fail to give sufficient recognition to the part played by conservatism in the development and justification of modern interventionist states and because they identify Marxism with collectivism and ignore the anti-collectivist strand in socialist thought. These elements are more easily accommodated within an alternative two-dimensional framework for the analysis of welfare ideologies which is briefly outlined.

Rate Capping and Local Government

Abstract: This paper argues that rate-capping was an inevitable product of the government's determination to control both the aggregate expenditure of local government and that of all individual authorities. We set out the background to these developments before going on look in more detail at the mechanics of rate-capping and its likely effects on the services provided by “capped” authorities. We challenge the rationale underlying rate-capping, arguing that its motivation is largely political and that to be effective all (or most) authorities will have to be rate-capped. Finally we examine the resistance being offered by “capped” authorities, their chance of success and the implications for central-local relations.

Unemployment and Labour Market Policies: Some Lessons from West Germany

Abstract: The author points out that West Germany has had low inflation, high industrial efficiency, and good vocational training, but has not escaped rising levels of unemployment. After an analysis of employment trends in Germany since 1945 there is a review of varying government policies in public expenditure and in dealing with unemployment. The author relates demographic trends to employment patterns, and refers to such phenomena as the “dormant labour force”, concluding that unemployment will remain high. He reviews the effects of social security benefits and of job creation schemes. He concludes that none of the well-known remedies for unemployment have proved effective in themselves but that short-term job creation schemes are very much a “second-best”. He concludes that industrial efficiency — though essential — is not enough in itself and that conquering inflation or providing youth training are shown by the German example to be only a partial help and not a solution to improving employment prospects.

Discretion in Welfare Provision

Abstract: While discretion has been studied in systems of distribution which are governed by rules, or in those where there is a crucial gatekeeper, there remain many informal and diffuse systems where little is known about the discretion used. An example is the allocation of community services. In such cases, a useful strategy is to analyze the informal rationing system along lines which are discussed, and by this means to identify as discretionary the cases which emerge as anomalous. Possibilities are outlined for comparing the amount of discretion used and its bias, in areas with different resource levels or degrees of regulation; and the paper concludes with a detailed illustration, drawn from an area study of community services for the elderly, of changes in the use of discretion with increasing pressure on resources.

Police complaints procedure: an overview

Abstract: The article reviews the system of enquiries into complaints about the police, after the 1964 and 1976 Police Acts. It concludes that there are still many unsatisfactory areas despite recent reviews and reforms.

Long‐Term Unemployment

Abstract: The author writes from the viewpoint of Chairman of an Area Board of the Manpower Services Commission involved in practical responses to present unemployment and in training programmes for 16 to 18 year olds. He reviews the various interpretations of the nature of unemployment noting that a high level of unemployment is now very general in industrial societies. Training is an important adjunct to employment in a technological and rapidly-changing society, but of itself it does not solve unemployment. Structural changes are required, many of these uncomfortable to the majority who are in profitable employment. Various partial remedies are reviewed but none of them on its own is found to be a full solution, neither is a reform of income distribution methods found satisfactory. The conclusion is that there are many aspects of unemployment and the solutions to it are complex and many-facetted.