Implementing the New Community Care

What were the aims of the new community care policy? How has the policy been implemented? How far have the aims of the policy been achieved?
These are just some of the questions addressed by the authors of this book. They trace the implementation of the 1990 community care legislation in five local authorities between 1992 and 1994. The book suggests that central government's main aim was to bring social security spending under control. Services issues were always secondary. Nevertheless, implications both for clients and services have been important and often unintended. Local authorities have faced considerable difficulties in implementing the legislation.
The process is followed in five local authorities, one county and four London boroughs. Local authorities were faced with a mass of central government guidance and a number of key changes to make. It traces three changes in detail: the implementation of the purchaser/provider split and the creation of a social care market, the introduction of care management, and efforts to collaborate with health authorities. The book compares how the authorities tackled these issues and examined why they approached the tasks so differently. It also analyses the way in which social services departments have changed in the process and the extent to which we are seeing the end of the 'Seebohm' Departments.
Implementing the New Community Care will be of interest to students of social policy, health and social welfare and social work.