FRAMEWORK OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF 11 ENGLISH SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENTS (SSDs)

Abstract

Over the last two decades, change has been an important theme for the public services in England and Wales. The Salmon Report heralded the change era by attempting to rationalise the nursing hierarchy according to specific definitions of nursing tasks and grades of pay (1). The Seebohm Report followed suit, recommending that any improvements in the social services had to be accompanied by fundamental administrative re‐organisation(2). Seebohm stated that the three separately administered local authority social work departments of childrens' welfare and mental health (as part of the local health department) should be integrated in one organisation ‐ the social service department (SSD). The recommendations of the report were implemented by the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. Within two years, the Local Government Act 1972 was in operation requiring substantial changes in local government boundaries and the re‐allocation of local government duties within the new units. The reason for the change of boundaries was that previously different local authorities had substantially different numbers of population in their catchment area. In order to promote equality of resource distribution nationwide, the new local government units were created to meet the demands of comparable population sizes. A year later, the Health Services were reformed on the grounds of attempting to establish comparable geographical boundaries with the newly created local govern‐ment units.

Citation

Kakabadse, A.P. (1983), "FRAMEWORK OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF 11 ENGLISH SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENTS (SSDs)", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 16-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb012947