Abstract:

The development of social policy in Great Britain has frequently been associated with concern about the alleged threat to prosperity from the dependent ageing population, which has been used to legitimate constraints on welfare expenditure. This has been particularly apparent since the mid-1970s when successive economic crises have coincided with the election of a Conservative government committed to public expenditure constraint & a residualist approach to welfare provision. In 1990 the National Health Service & Community Care Act imposed the obligation on social services departments - the major state provider of social welfare - to promote the private & voluntary provision of welfare, rationalize their own provision, & become enablers rather than direct providers of welfare services. It is contended here that the validity of the alleged threat from the ageing population is illusory, & that the neglect by the social work profession of elderly people - the largest client group of social services departments - may well have hastened the demise of a major part of the welfare state in Great Britain.