M. Penelope Hall - The Social Services of Modern England

THE SOCIAL SERVICES
OF MODERN ENGLAND

PUBLIC POLICY, WELFARE AND SOCIAL WORK
In 18 Volumes

First published in 1952 by
Routledge

Reprinted 1998, 2001 by
Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

1959 , 1960 M. Penelope Hall

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A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

The Social Services of Modern England

ISBN 0-415-17725-1

Public Policy, Welfare and Social Work: 18 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17831-2

The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17838-X
ISBN 978-1-1362-6308-8 (ePub)

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original
may be apparent

To

ELLINOR I. BLACK
Teacher, Colleague and Friend

D URING the closing years of the Second World War and the period of reconstruction which followed, our social services embracing social insurance and assistance, health, housing, education, the care of old people and of deprived childrenwhich had been expanding and developing during the previous half-century, were examined, evaluated and reconstituted. Their scope was widened to include the whole population, and the benefits provided were made more far-reaching and comprehensive. To-day their cost forms an important item in the national budget, thousands of officials and social workers are employed in administering them, and the concept of the Welfare State, of which they are the concrete embodiment, is a challenge to our social and political thinking. Yet surprisingly little has been written about them. As it is less than four years since the appointed day (5th July 1948) on which much of our present social legislation became operative, and as since then economic and technical difficulties have resulted in delays and shortcomings, it is still rather soon for a major analysis and evaluation of the social services to be undertaken. At the same time, judging by my teaching experience, both within a university department of social science and with extra-mural students, there appears to be a real need for a book which gives a general description of the principal social services, outlines their development and considers their present functions in relation to the needs of the individuals and groups for whose benefit they were brought into being. This is the kind of book I have tried to write. It is based in the main on published material, and is intended to serve as an introduction to, and not as a substitute for, the study of Government publications and other original and specialist writings.

The scope of the book is wide, and I fully realise that each of its twenty-three chapters could have been written by a person more knowledgeable about that particular service or branch of social work than I am myself. Consequently, I am particularly grateful to my colleagues in the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester who specialise in the subjects dealt with here, and to my friends whose task it is to administer the social services I have described, for their constructive and helpful criticisms. The suggestions made by Miss C. S. Blackburn, Miss .. Blackburn, Dr. D. Chapman, Mrs. J. Cole, Miss D. M. Deed, Mr. W. Duncan, Miss M. Irvine, Mrs. A. M. Pearson, Miss V. D. Pearson, Miss M. Price, Miss D. B. Read, Mr. and Mrs.. N. Rodgers, Mrs. T. S. Simey, Mr. and Mrs. F. D. Weeks and Miss J. Woodward have done much to enrich and improve the work. I should also like to thank the authors and publishers who have given me permission to quote from their books and other writings. These are referred to in the text and full details are given in the bibliography at the end. In these acknowledgments I must include Messrs. Seeker and Warburg Ltd., who have agreed to my using a sentence from Lewis Mumfords book The Condition of Man as a chapter heading; Mr. T. S. Eliot and Messrs. Faber and Faber, who have allowed me to quote from the formers poem The Rock, and Messrs. A. and C. Black, who have given me permission to use the quotation from Albert Schweitzer.

This book contains a good deal of material based on articles in periodicals and other writings published by voluntary and professional associations and I should like to record my thanks to the following organisations for the help I have received from their publications: The Institute of Almoners, Family Service Units, The Family Welfare Association, The National Association of Girls Clubs and Mixed Clubs, The Society of Housing Managers, The British Medical Association, The National Association for Mental Health, the Nuffield Foundation, Political and Economic Planning, the Institute of Personnel Management, The Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, The National Council of Social Service, The Manchester and Salford Council of Social Service, and The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child.