A. Forder (editor) - Penelope Halls Social Services of England and Wales

The International Library of Sociology

PENELOPE HALLS SOCIAL SERVICES OF ENGLAND AND WALES

Founded by KARL MANNHEIM

The International Library of Sociology

PUBLIC POLICY, WELFARE AND SOCIAL WORK

In 18 Volumes

PENELOPE HALLS

SOCIAL SERVICES OF ENGLAND AND WALES

Edited on behalf of the Social Science Department of Liverpool University

by

ANTHONY FORDER

First published in 1969 by

Routledge

Reprinted 1998, 2001 by

Routledge

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

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

1969 Social Science Department Liverpool University

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in The International Library of Sociology. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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

Penelope Halls Social Services of England and Wales

ISBN 0-415-17718-9

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

Publishers Note

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

A WRITER rash enough to call her book The Social Services of Modern England is in the position of Alice in the grip of the Red Queen. Run as hard as this unfortunate child might, still the Queen cried Taster! Faster! and when at last they paused, and she was able to look around, she found herself in exactly the same place as before. If you want to get anywhere else you must run twice as fast as that, remarked the Red Queen acidly. Similarly at the end of each successive attempt to catch up with current legislation and research, I find myself, as always, a little behind the times, conscious that, like its predecessors, the newly revised edition contains statements of fact that were correct when the manuscript was written but which have become out of date during printing, and opinions which might have been modified had the findings of a government enquiry or piece of current research been available a little earlier. The way out of this dilemma is with the reader. If he wishes, as he should to get anywhere else he must himself consult the government publications and other original and specialist writings to which, as stated in the Preface to the First Edition, this book is intended as an introduction.

The present revision has been more thorough and extensive than previous ones and several chapters have been entirely re-written. I am grateful to those colleagues and friends who have helped me with it by their advice, criticism and encouragement. For the errors and inadequacies which still remain despite their generous help I must take full responsibility, and can but trust that they will be rectified by the students further reading, observation and practical experience.

M.P.H.

September, 1958

W HEN, as Penelope Halls successor in the Social Science Department of the University of Liverpool, I was asked if I would consider preparing a new edition of The Social Services of Modern England, I was very much aware that this was both an honour and a challenge. On the one hand the book has a high reputation and a wide circulation. On the other hand Miss Hall herself had protested that she was in the position of Alice in the grip of the Red Queen. Run as hard as this unfortunate child might, still the Queen cried Faster ! Faster ! and when at last they paused, and she was able to look around, she found herself in exactly the same position as before. Now four years have passed since the last major revision in September, 1963, four years which have seen great changes in legislation and in the approach to the social services of politicians and theorists. Discussion with colleagues who had known Miss Hall confirmed my own impression that one person could no longer be expected to cover so wide a field in an authoritative manner, and that a joint effort was needed.

Thus a group of colleagues, mainly from the Social Science Department, held a series of meetings to consider the nature of the changes that were required to bring the book up-to-date. The first principle established was that there was still a need for a single volume covering the major social services. It should be mainly descriptive, but should also include some analysis. This volume must be shorter than the previous edition which had run to 400 pages and reached the limits of a single volume. This meant that substantial rewriting was required.

The second important decision related to the form of the book. Although the matter of the original edition had been regularly brought up to date, its form had been scarcely changed. Yet the form appropriate to 1952, at a time when a series of reforms had given a sense of completeness to the idea of the Welfare State, was no longer appropriate to 1967 not only because of changes in the intermediate period but also because the basic organisation of the social services was now being questioned in many different ways. For example the creation of the Ministry of Social Security in 1966 was a symbol of the increasing integration of National Assistance and National Insurance, but neither these nor Family Allowances could any longer be discussed in isolation from the growth of occupational pensions and taxation allowances. Similarly the White Paper on the Child, the Family and the Young Offender made it impossible to discuss services for the care of children without a consideration of penal services for juveniles.