The Voluntary Sector The State And Social Work In Britain

This text offers a perspective on welfare politics in Britain which shows that Britain has always had a mixed economy of welfare with the voluntary sector playing a major role. It traces the ideas of the Charity Organisation Society, which became the Family Welfare Association in 1946.

The last two decades of the twentieth century saw the most fundamental changes in British social policy since the creation of the welfare state in the 1940s. From Margaret Thatcher's radical reassessment of the role of the state to Tony Blair's 'Third Way', the voluntary sector has been at the heart of these changes. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, voluntary organisations have been cast in leading roles on the social policy stage. They are expected to make key contributions to countering social exclusion; to regenerating communities; to providing social housing and welfare services; to promoting international aid and development; and to developing and sustaining democratic participation and the active community. But how are voluntary sector organisations grappling with the implications of their new, expanded role? How is their relationship with the state changing in practice? This book, which has its origins in an international conference of leading academics in the field, provides answers to these pressing questions. It analyses the numerous and complex ways in which the formulation and implementation of social policy is dependent on the contributions of the voluntary sector. It discusses the impact of the new policy environment on voluntary organisations. And it suggests that the successful implementation of social policy requires government to acknowledge and nurture the distinctive features and contributions of voluntary sector organisations. Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy in Britain is essential reading not only for the many people studying, working in or working with the voluntary sector in Britain but also for anyone who is interested in the formulation and implementation of social policy.

This new book addresses the topical issues surrounding employment relations in UK voluntary organizations that operate within the quasi-market of social care. Combining an analysis of the established literature with in-depth qualitative field work, Ian Cunningham explores the nature of power relations between state and voluntary sector; implications of employment policy and subsequent pressures for change in pay and working conditions; the influence of trade unions in the sector; management’s capacity to resist external pressure and employee responses to this environment. Cunningham’s focus on the employment relationship in this sector is unique, highlighting a complex and variable pattern of interdependence and subordination between government agencies and voluntary sector employers. The author examines the way in which financial pressures from the state coupled with weak unionization diminish working conditions, arguing that employee morale will not be sustained if the voluntary sector fails to maintain its autonomy and minimize its dependency on state funding.

Few subjects bring out so well the differences between ourselves and our ancestors as the history of Christian charity. In an increasingly mobile and materialist world, in which culture has grown more national, indeed global, we no longer relate to the lost world of nineteenth-century parish life. Today, we can hardly imagine a voluntary society that boasted millions of religious associations providing essential services, in which the public rarely saw a government official apart from the post office clerk. Against the background of the welfare state and the collapse of church membership, the very idea of Christian social reform has a quaint, Victorian air about it. In this elegantly written study of shifting British values, Frank Prochaska examines the importance of Christianity as an inspiration for political and social behaviour in the nineteenth century and the forces that undermined both religion and philanthropy in the twentieth. The waning of religion and the growth of government responsibility for social provision were closely intertwined. Prochaska shows how the creation of the modern British state undermined religious belief and customs of associational citizenship. In unravelling some of the complexities in the evolving relationship between voluntarism and the state, the book presents a challenging new interpretation of Christian decline and democratic traditions in Britain.

Families and Social Workers examines the origins, development and impact of Family Service Units (FSU), a voluntary social work agency that, during the post-war period, exercised an influence on the development of social work practice and training out of all proportion to its size and resources. Originating in the activities of conscientious objectors in Liverpool, Manchester and Stepney during the Second World War, FSU’s innovative methods of working with poor families led to the establishment of units in towns and cities throughout Britain. This study shows how FSU met the challenges and opportunities presented by the introduction of state-run social services; evaluates its successes and failures in terms of the aims that units set themselves; and examines the conflicts that arose between FSU’s commitment to independence and innovation and its dependence on local authority funding.

This book explores the rich history of voluntary action in the United Kingdom over the past 100 years, through the lens of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which celebrates its centenary in 2019. From its establishment at the end of the First World War, through the creation of the Welfare State in the middle of the twentieth century, to New Labour and the Big Society at the beginning of this century, NCVO has been at the forefront of major developments within society and the voluntary movement. The book examines its many successes, including its role in establishing high-profile charities such as Age Concern, the Youth Hostels Association, and National Association of Citizens’ Advice Bureaux. It charts the development of closer relations with the state, resulting in growing awareness of the value of voluntary action, increased funding, and beneficial changes to public policy, tax and charity law. But it also explores the criticisms NCVO has faced, in particular that by pursuing a partnership agenda and championing professionalisation, it has contributed to an erosion of the movement’s independence and distinctiveness.

This book provides an analytical overview of the vast range of historiography which was produced in western Europe over a thousand-year period between c.400 and c.1500. Concentrating on the general principles of classical rhetoric central to the language of this writing, alongside the more familiar traditions of ancient history, biblical exegesis and patristic theology, this survey introduces the conceptual sophistication and semantic rigour with which medieval authors could approach their narratives of past and present events, and the diversity of ends to which this history could then be put. By providing a close reading of some of the historians who put these linguistic principles and strategies into practice (from Augustine and Orosius through Otto of Freising and William of Malmesbury to Machiavelli and Guicciardini), it traces and questions some of the key methodological changes that characterise the function and purpose of the western historiographical tradition in this formative period of its development.