Geographies of Care: Space, Place and the Voluntary Sector

As care services in Britain have moved from institutional to community-based environments, there has been a simultaneous shift in those agencies concerned with the provision of such care and support. this new environment of care is a complex one, involving numerous different actors and agencies that operate across various different spatial and organizational levels of the policy process. The implementation and success of care policies depend in part on the inter-relationships between these various players. This book examines these inter-relationships, illustrated by an in-depth empirical study of policy makers and informal care providers concerned with the frail elderly in Scotland. Taking the voluntary sector as a lens through which these inter-relationships are explored, it analyzes how voluntary support is affected by differing local contexts of care and what this means in terms of locally based care outcomes. Using a networked approach, the book examines the social and policy environment within which care is situated.