Social services in Britain.

  • Great Britain. Central Office of Information. Reference Division
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social services in Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION THE BRITISH social services cover a wide range of provisions to promote the health and well-being of the people of Britain and to improve the surround- ings in which they live. The underlying motive is the recognition that the community as a whole has a responsibility both to help its weaker and less fortunate members and to seek to secure for all the citizens those services which they cannot provide by themselves as individuals. To give a fuller picture of the provisions that exist to promote social welfare, this pamphlet outlines! not only the activities most commonly referred to as ‘the social services’—social security, health services, the care of the old, the disabled, and children lacking families, together with education, housing and town and country planning—but also the facilities for promoting good working conditions and helping people to get work, the treatment of offenders against the law, and the provision of legal aid and advice to citizens without the financial means to defend themselves in court or obtain justice. Nearly all the services now in being were pioneered by voluntary organisa- tions, especially the Churches, and many voluntary services still surround and supplement those publicly and statutorily provided. The two types are not competitive but complementary, and merge into each other. Public auth- orities often work through voluntary authorities specially adapted to serve individual needs, and officials co-operate with the workers of the many social service societies. The administration of the public services normally takes one of two forms. First, there are services provided directly through central Government departments which make local contact with individuals through a network of local offices. Such are the employment and social security services which pertain to the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance and the National Assistance Board in Great Britain, and the Ministry of Labour and National Insurance and the Northern Ireland National Assistance Board in Northern Ireland. (Northern Ireland has its own separate Parliament and Ministries for domestic affairs.) Second, there are services which are administered on a local basis by local authorities2 but the ultimate responsibility for them rests with central Government departments. These are education, health and welfare, housing and town and country planning, and the welfare of children lacking family care, which are the concern in England and Wales of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Home Office respectively, in Scotland of the Scottish Office, and in Northern Ireland of the appropriate Northern Ireland Ministries. In addition, the treatment of offend- ers is a responsibility of the Home Office, Scottish Office and Northern Ireland Ministry of Home Affairs who are responsible also for the various institu- tions to which offenders may be sent. In every case ultimate responsibility 1For more detailed information, see the COI reference pamphlets describing individual services. 2Or specially constituted local committees, boards or councils. l
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