This document provides an overview of a chapter from a social policy textbook that discusses the social context of welfare. It begins with an introduction to key concepts like the social nature of welfare and how individuals are embedded in social relationships and networks that make up society. It then explores topics like social inclusion and exclusion, and how understanding society is crucial for developing effective social policy and welfare. The document concludes by summarizing that people exist in social relationships and networks that collectively form society, and that welfare policy aims to improve people's lives in society but can only do so by comprehending society's composition.

1. Human Rights policy & and law
Assignment 1
Review the a chapter assigned from our core text book, Social
Policy Theory and Practice.
Create a PowerPoint and record via Adobe Connect a max 15
minimum during your lecture a presentation detailing the key
points from each chapter for your peers, including your own
summary and thoughts.
Upload a brief synopsis and your presentation of 1000 words to
the module page.
Assigned Chapter:
Chapter 9: Principles and values
Methodology:
What is the chapter about?
Who is the chapter addressing?
Concerns of this chapter.
My conceptions
Success of the Argument
References
Chapter 2: Welfare in Society
Paul Spicker
Lorna Towey
s00143218

2. Contents
The Social Context of Welfare
The Person in Society
Social Networks
Inclusion and Exclusion
Society and Social Policy
The Social Context of Welfare
It is impossible to understand the effects of welfare policies in
isolation from the rest of society.
Welfare is a social concept and to understand the social context
of welfare is to grow ones understanding of social policy.
All concepts in society are contested – there isn’t one
definition and therefore everything is open to interpretation.
Welfare
Social Policy

3. Society
The Person in Society
The Human Being – The biological body is debated as separate,
but Spicker suggest is embedded in its own social context
with example of the need for food, the need for the body for
work & contested social topics such as disability and sexuality.
Individuals – Can be understood as people who seek
separation from others/state, Spicker suggest people are not
generally separated from others. Individualised thinking is
important in the fight against the oppression of groups of
people.
The Person – Not always a single person, generally defined by
social relationships, the social roles and connections a person
has. A nonperson is somebody cut off from relationships and
roles.
People are social creatures and make up society. To improve the
welfare of people in society it is important to understand the
people themselves.
Social Networks
Family – Important in society for development & social
relationships. The family in social policy generally address
families with children. The family is often viewed as private
from the state & only requiring intervention in times of
problems.
Community - can be defined as persons with shared geography,
culture, social networks or interests. Social policy has began to

4. centre on themes of community building. Community has a
direct link to the social elements of society as it made up by
people.
Workplace - heavy historic presence in social action. There are
examples of industries that take responsibilities for their
employees occupational welfare. The state is more so seen as
the keyholder of welfare and attention has turned to those who
do not participate as a worker.
Nation - Negative for social policy and seen as a constraint and
often discussed in terms of moral responsibility. Universalism
implying that moral standards should be applied to everyone.
Particularism understood as where each circumstance, and each
relationship, dictates the rules that they live by. Solidarity
discusses responsibility outside on the bounds of nation.
Inclusion and Exclusion
Society - Post war individualism led to a rejection of society.
European states under the influence of catholic teaching
discusses society as an obligation to a central idea of solidarity.
It is understood everyone has a role and their role is a part of a
social network, therefore society is made up of many social
networks.
Social Exclusion - people not included in society – people
denied a social role or for whom support does to extend to. E.g.,
people who are long term unemployed, asylum seekers.
Social Inclusion – the act of promoting those on the edge to be
included in a social network and society.

5. Stigma – where people are excluded due to their inclusion in
social services. There can be mental stigmas – people with
mental health issues or illness, physical stigmas – people with
physical illness or disease, moral stigmas – lone parents or
offenders and dependency stigma.
Moral condemnation - where people reject their general
understood obligation to others
Questioning people's genuineness
Judging the behaviour and characters of those
receiving welfare
It is important to understand stigma when developing social
policy as there is often a stigma attached to welfare service
which negatively impacts the people it aims to serve.
Society and Social Policy
In order to have effective welfare one must understand the
society and issues of which is aims to address.
Welfare is often blamed for issues that are consequences of a
society structure e.g. poverty
Ultimately welfare cannot be understood as an additional

6. measure but rather viewed in the context of the policy which
has already existed in a society and the structures of the
society itself.
Summary & Conclusion
This chapter very successfully explores why welfare must be
understood as a social concept.
People are social creatures with relationships and roles that are
part of social networks. These networks and the people within
them make up society.
Welfare aims to improve the experience for people in society
but this can only be successfully achieved by
understanding society and its makeup.
People
Social Relationships & Roles
Social Networks
Society
My Thoughts
Social inclusion is very relevant to the current disability sector
focus – there is a huge focus on inclusion after years of
exclusion for people with disability from society.
The concept of a nonperson is relevant to discussion around
people with profound intellectual disabilities being assumed to
not have social relationships and roles and therefore being
excluded from society.
Nationhood and the complexity of achieving a balanced welfare

7. system is relevant to the treatment of asylum seekers in
Ireland. The exclusion of people due to their disallowance to
participate in society with the example of work, which is true of
those in Direct Provision and also having a society
where a common culture of stigma is attached to those
dependent on welfare and social services.
The chapter provides a beginning for further learning around
social policy and uses thought provoking examples in its
exploration.
Theory and practice
SOCIAL
POLICY
Paul Spicker
THIRD EDITION
C
o
p
y
r
i
g
h
t

8. 2
0
1
4
.
P
o
l
i
c
y
P
r
e
s
s
.
A
l
l
r
i
g
h
t
s
r
e
s
e
r

9. v
e
d
.
M
a
y
n
o
t
b
e
r
e
p
r
o
d
u
c
e
d
i
n
a
n
y
f
o

10. r
m
w
i
t
h
o
u
t
p
e
r
m
i
s
s
i
o
n
f
r
o
m
t
h
e
p
u
b
l
i

11. s
h
e
r
,
e
x
c
e
p
t
f
a
i
r
u
s
e
s
p
e
r
m
i
t
t
e
d
u
n
d

12. e
r
U
.
S
.
o
r
a
p
p
l
i
c
a
b
l
e
c
o
p
y
r
i
g
h
t
l
a
w
.

13. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed
on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SLIGO
AN: 1573525 ; Spicker, Paul.; Social Policy 3E : Theory and
Practice
Account: s7813921
Social policy
Theory and practice
Third edition
Paul Spicker
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
This edition published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Policy Press North America office:
University of Bristol Policy Press
6th Floor c/o The University of Chicago Press
Howard House 1427 East 60th Street
Queen’s Avenue Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Clifton t: +1 773 702 7700
Bristol BS8 1SD f: +1 773 702 9756
UK [email protected]
t: +44 (0)117 331 5020 www.press.uchicago.edu
f: +44 (0)117 331 5367
[email protected]

14. www.policypress.co.uk
© Paul Spicker 2014
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 978 1 44731 610 7 paperback
ISBN 978 1 44731 609 1 hardcover
The right of Paul Spicker to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of Policy Press.
The statements and opinions contained within this publication
are solely those of
the author and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press.
The University of
Bristol and Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury
to persons or property
resulting from any material published in this publication.
Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of
gender, race, disability, age and sexuality.

15. Cover design by Qube Design Associates, Bristol
Front cover image: istock
Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
iii
contents
List of tables, figures and boxes vii
About the author ix
Preface xi
chapter 1 introduction: the nature of social policy 1
The nature of social policy 1
Social policy and the academic disciplines 10
The uses of theory 16
Studying social policy 18
parT 1: Social policy and SocieTy
chapter 2 Welfare in society 23
The social context of welfare 23
The person in society 24
Social networks 28
Inclusion and exclusion 35
Society and social policy 40
chapter 3 inequalities 43
The structure of inequality 43

16. Inequality of resources 53
Redistribution 57
chapter 4 problems and responses 63
Social problems 63
Responding to social problems 67
Targeting: the focus of policy 70
Individual and collective approaches 81
chapter 5 needs and welfare 85
Well-being 85
Needs 88
Need groups 92
Needs and responses 106
chapter 6 indicators – quantifying social issues 109
Measurement and indicators 109
Counting: enumerations and censuses 112
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
iv
Social policy
Presenting indicators 114
Anticipating change 120
parT 2: policy
chapter 7 public policy 135
The nature of policy 135

17. Formal processes: law and the state 136
Governance 141
Government and social policy 147
The social services 150
Comparing policies 154
chapter 8 Welfare states 159
The welfare states 159
Influences on development 161
Models of welfare 164
Welfare régimes 166
Patterns in the development of welfare states 168
Explanations for development 173
Beyond the state: globalisation and social policy 179
chapter 9 principles and values 181
Distinguishing principles and values 182
Normative values in social policy 183
Ideology and social welfare 190
chapter 10 Strategies for welfare 203
Strategies and methods 203
Markets and decommodification 205
Residualism 212
Selectivity 213
Social protection and solidarity 215
Universality 218
The welfare state: comprehensive provision 221
chapter 11 policy in practice 223
Policy analysis 223
Aims 227
Values 229
Goals 231
Methods 236
Implementation 237

18. EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
v
Contents
Outcomes 241
Analysis for practice 242
parT 3: Social adminiSTraTion: The organiSaTion
and delivery of Welfare
chapter 12 Welfare sectors 247
The social division of welfare 247
Welfare pluralism 256
Governance: partnership and agency 259
chapter 13 The organisation of public services 269
The public services 269
Welfare bureaucracies 272
Organisational roles 276
Divisions of labour 284
chapter 14 value for money 289
Managing resources 289
Cost-effectiveness 293
Efficiency 297
The distributive impact of policy 302
chapter 15 Service delivery 307
The production of welfare 307

19. Priorities 308
Rationing 310
Equity and procedural fairness 318
Managing the demand for services 321
Delivering services 324
chapter 16 receiving welfare 329
The receiving end 329
Claims: demand, needs and rights 330
The process of claiming 333
The costs of claiming 338
Choice 340
Rights 342
Empowerment 344
Developing user control 348
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
vi
Social policy
chapter 17 The administrative process 353
The art of the possible 354
Administration in practice 359
Analysing complex processes 367
Keeping track of implementation 372
parT 4: The meThodS and approacheS of Social
policy
chapter 18 research for policy 381

20. Policy research 381
The research process 384
Ethical issues in research 403
Criticising research methods 406
chapter 19 evidence and policy 409
Using empirical evidence 409
Evaluation 412
Methods of evaluation 414
Analysing policies and services 423
Approaches to evaluation 424
chapter 20 Social policy for practice 429
Applying social policy 429
Skills for social policy 433
Social policy as a professional role 437
Social policy as public service 438
Social policy as an ethical activity 441
appendiceS
Social policy: a guide to sources 450
Further reading 452
glossary 456
index of subjects 483
index of names 493
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

21. vii
list of tables, figures and boxes
Tables
1.1 Social policy and the social sciences 14
4.1 Problems and responses 69
12.1 The mixed economy of welfare 257
13.1 Systems of authority 282
14.1 The distributive effects of local services 305
18.1 Selection of research methods 399
19.1 Policy analysis in practice 425
figures
2.1 People in society 36
3.1 The distribution of household income in the UK 54
3.2 The Lorenz curve 55
5.1 Utility curves: the economic representation of welfare 86
7.1 Methods of governance 144
8.1 The relationship between welfare expenditure and GDP 172
9.1 Left and right 198
11.1 ‘Rational’ policy making 224
14.1 Average and marginal costs 294
14.2 Efficiency and cost-effectiveness 298
15.1 Rationing processes 311
16.1 Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation 349
18.1 The research process 384
Boxes
1.1 Richard Titmuss 8
1.2 Social science and social policy 15
2.1 Support for migrants 33
2.2 The moral condemnation of welfare recipients 37
3.1 Policies for equality 52
3.2 Explanations for poverty 56
4.1 The misconstruction of problems 65

22. 4.2 Social casework 73
5.1 Poverty: the absence of welfare 90
5.2 Assessing the need for social care 105
6.1 The Millennium Development Goals 115
6.2 Malthus and world population 125
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
viii
Social policy
7.1 The social policy of the European Union 139
7.2 Who decides? 145
8.1 A public burden? 170
8.2 Structural adjustment 177
9.1 Religious values and social policy 188
9.2 The legacy of the Poor Law 191
10.1 The limits to market housing 210
10.2 Basic Health Care Packages 219
11.1 PRSPs 225
11.2 Universal Primary Education in Uganda: the Big Bang 238
12.1 Health care in the USA 252
12.2 Packages of care 265
13.1 Constitutional governance and accountability 270
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

23. ix
about the author
Paul Spicker holds the Grampian Chair of Public Policy at the
Robert
Gordon University, Aberdeen. His research includes studies of
poverty,
need, disadvantage and service delivery; he has worked as a
consultant
for a range of agencies in social welfare provision.
This book combines elements from Social policy: themes and
approaches
(Policy Press, 2008) and Policy analysis for practice (Policy
Press, 2006).
Paul Spicker’s other books include:
• Stigma and social welfare (Croom Helm, 1984)
• Principles of social welfare (Routledge, 1988)
• Social housing and the social services (Longmans, 1989)
• Poverty and social security: concepts and principles
(Routledge, 1993)
• Planning for the needs of people with dementia (with D S
Gordon,
Avebury, 1997)
• Social protection: a bilingual glossary (co-editor with J-P
Révauger,
Mission-Recherche, 1998)
• Social policy in a changing society (with Maurice
Mullard,
Routledge, 1998)
• Poverty: an international glossary (co-editor with Sonia
Alvarez

24. Leguizamon and David Gordon, Zed, 2007)
• The welfare state: a general theory (Sage, 2000)
• Liberty, equality, fraternity (Policy Press, 2006)
• The idea of poverty (Policy Press, 2007)
• The origins of modern welfare (Peter Lang, 2010)
• How social security works (Policy Press, 2011)
• Reclaiming individualism (Policy Press, 2013)
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
xi
preface
In the previous editions of Social policy, I identified three main
aims.
First, this book is a guide for students taking undergraduate and
professional courses in Social Policy and Administration. Most
books
which aim to give an overview of social policy consider details,
issues
and developments relating to the social services in their country
of
origin. I’ve written a couple of books like that myself, most
recently

25. How social security works, which outlines the British system of
income
maintenance in some detail. This book is different. It offers an
outline
of the theoretical foundations of the subject and many of the
issues
which affect social policy in practice. It is written for an
international
readership. In the course of the last twenty five years, social
policy
has increasingly become an international field of study. My
website,
An Introduction to Social Policy, attracts visitors from more
than fifty
countries every day; it has had more than six million page
views. I’ve
discussed aspects of the work in this book with students and
teachers
from several countries, and I’ve tried to write it in a form that
will be
relevant and useful for people around the world. It does not
consider
the details of social policy in a single country, because that
would limit
its general application; and it explains the issues in much
greater depth
than would be possible if three-quarters of the book was
discussing
policy and politics in Britain, the US or any other country. It
follows
that this book needs to be read together with other texts and
resources
to be used to the best effect.
Second, the book shows what theoretical approaches to social
policy
can offer. The coverage of social policy is often descriptive, or

26. based in
commentaries about specific government policies; this book is
quite
different. Most of the structures and explanatory frameworks
used
here were developed for successive editions of this book, and
you will
not find them anywhere else. The purpose of theory in social
policy
is not just to help people understand, but to give readers
structure,
shape and different ways of looking at the information they are
coming
across. This may be a textbook, and textbooks are often
dismissed by
the academic establishment, but there is no reason why a book
cannot
be useful to students, accessible and original at the same time.
The book’s third aim follows from that. This book was always
intended to be a contribution to the development of social
policy
as a subject, and to the literature in its own right. This has been
a
long-term project, developing a systematic view of social policy
as
a multi-disciplinary, applied field of study. Richard Titmuss
laid the
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
xii

27. Social policy
foundations for the academic study of social policy, and his
work is
often referenced here; from this book, it should be possible to
see the
building.
This new edition brings together material from two texts: the
second
edition of Social policy: themes and approaches (Policy Press,
2008) and
Policy analysis for practice (Policy Press, 2006). I wanted to
put more
material about practice into Social policy; I also wanted to put
more
about theory into Policy analysis for practice. In both cases, I
had the
problem that I had already written a different book covering the
areas I
wanted to consider, often using the best material in a different
context.
It made sense, then, to combine the books, and that is what I
have
done. The tone of Policy analysis for practice was less formal
than this
book is, but more importantly its material was firmly rooted in
practice
in Scotland and the UK; the aims of Social policy, and its
readership,
are international. What you are reading is much closer, then, to
the
previous editions of Social policy than to Policy analysis, but
the change
in the sub-title reflects an important shift of emphasis. This
edition
has also had a moderately large injection of new material,

28. including
some 30,000 words and about 200 new references that were not
in
the tributary works. This may not always be obvious; if I have
been
successful in dovetailing the material together, it should be
difficult to
see the joins.
A book like this covers many issues, and I have to accept that
some readers will only look at parts of it. It has always been
true
that many people who study social policy are doing it as an add-
on
for specialised and professional courses, such as social work,
nursing,
housing management and public administration. Beyond that,
rather
too many courses in the UK have lost sight of what social
policy is
about, and some students will find it difficult to relate most of
the book
to the content of their degrees. That is not a problem with this
book,
but it is a fault of some contemporary courses that present
themselves
as being about social policy. If you are a student learning about
social
policy, and you are not being shown how it can be used in
practice,
you should protest. Seize a pitchfork, fire the flaming torches
and
storm the castle (I speak, of course, metaphorically). You are
being
short-changed.
Paul Spicker

29. The Robert Gordon University
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
1
CHAPTeR 1
introduction: the nature of
social policy
The nature of social policy
Social policy and the academic disciplines
The uses of theory
Studying social policy
The nature of social policy
What is social policy?
Social policy begins with the study of the social services and
the
welfare state. It developed from ‘social administration’, a field
devoted
to preparing people for work in the social services in practice.
One of
the best known descriptions of the field comes from David
Donnison:
The teaching of Social Administration began in Britain before
the

30. First World War ... ‘for those who wish to prepare themselves
to
engage in the many forms of social and charitable effort’. ...
The
social services are still the main things they (students) study.
That
means they are also interested in people’s living conditions, the
processes which lead to the recognition of human needs and
problems, the development of organised means for meeting
needs
and resolving problems, and the impact which social services
and
social policies have on living conditions and on society in
general.1
This is where the study of social policy started, and it is still
central to
understanding what the subject is about. The social services are
mainly
understood to include social security, housing, health, social
work and
education – the ‘big five’ – along with others which raise
similar issues,
such as employment, prisons, legal services, community safety
... even
drains. Drains (not to be confused with sewers) are worth a
moment
of our attention. The draining of surface water is important to
control
1 D Donnison et al, Social policy and administration revisited,
London: Allen
and Unwin 1965, p.1
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to

31. https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
2
Social policy
flooding, to limit problems from insects, and to prevent the
spread of
disease.2 If one is concerned not just with topics that are
dramatic and
emotionally exciting, but with the kind of things that are
important to
people, which are intended to make people’s lives better, which
might
be taken for granted when they are there and make life
intolerable
when they are not, then drains are a fairly good example.
This book has a strong emphasis on practice, but it is not only
about
practice. Donnison continues:
Narrowly defined, social administration is the study of the
development, structure and practices of the social ser vices.
Broadly defined, it is an attempt to apply the social sciences ...
to
the analysis and solution of a changing range of social
problems.
It must be taught in both these senses if it is to be of any
value.3
The watershed in the development of social policy was an essay
by
Richard Titmuss, written in 1955, on the ‘Social Division of
Welfare’.4

32. Titmuss argued that it was impossible to understand the effects
of
welfare policies in isolation from the rest of society; there were
many
other channels through which ‘welfare’ was delivered. The
theme
was picked up, for example, by Hilary Rose in an essay on the
‘Sexual
Division of Welfare’, in which she argued that it was not
possible to
understand the impact of policy on women without putting this
into
its social context.5 The present-day focus on social policy
rather than
social administration reflects a general trend for people working
in the
field to be less interested in the details of how services are run,
and
more in the broader sweep of policy and politics.
Although the practical issues the subject used to be mainly
focused
on are not always treated as central to the field, they haven’t
gone
away. On the contrary, they have developed very substantially.
Issues
like strategic planning, governance, partnership working and
user
participation have become part of the language of everyday
practice in
2 See e.g. S Cairncross, e Ouano, 1990, Surface water drainage
in urban
areas, in J Hardoy, S Cairncross, D Satterthwaite (eds), The
poor die young,
London: earthscan.

33. 3 D Donnison, 1961, The teaching of social administration,
British Journal
of Sociology 13(3), cited W Birrell, P Hillyard, A Murie, D
Roche (eds)
1971, Social aministration, Harmondsworth: Penguin, p.9.
4 R Titmuss, 1955, The social division of welfare, in essays on
‘the welfare
state’, London: Allen and Unwin 1963.
5 H Rose, 1981, Rereading Titmuss: the sexual division of
welfare, Journal
of Social Policy 10(4) pp 477–502.
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
3
Introduction
central and local government. There is a new administrative
language,
covering topics like needs assessment, performance indicators,
targets
and audit. Beyond that, we’ve seen the growth of a range of
relatively
new concepts – issues like empowerment, voice and quasi-
markets.
There are a range of new techniques and skills, obviously
including
changes in computer technology, but including focus groups,
interactive

34. approaches to consultation, and participative research. At a
time
when many people working in social policy had lost interest in
social
administration, the field has been growing, developing and
changing.
What does social policy study?
Social policy and administration is about problems as well as
policy; about ends as well as means. Titmuss suggested that the
major
fields of research and teaching were:
1. The analysis and description of policy formulation and its
consequences, intended and unintended.
2. The study of structure, function, organisation, planning and
administrative processes of institutions and agencies, historical
and comparative.
3. The study of social needs and of problems, of access to,
utilisation
and patterns of outcome of services, transactions and transfers.
4. The analysis of the nature, attributes and distribution of
social
costs and diswelfares.
5. The analysis of distributive and allocative patterns in
command-
over-resources-through-time and the particular impact of social
services.
6. The study of the roles and functions of elected
representatives,

35. professional workers, administrators and interest groups in the
operation and performance of social welfare institutions.
7. The study of the social rights of the citizen as contributor,
participant and user of social services.
8. The study and role of government (local and central) as an
allocator of values and of rights to social property as expressed
through social and administrative law and other rule-making
channels.6
Social policy has always been study for a purpose. It is aimed
in the
first place at administrators and professionals in the public
services who
6 R Titmuss, 1968, Commitment to welfare, Allen and Unwin,
pp 20–24.
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
4
Social policy
need to know about the problems and processes they will be
dealing
with. It has expanded beyond this, but the central focus of the
field is
still practical and applied. Although Titmuss’s description of
the field
invites consideration of the wider distributive implications of

36. social
welfare policy, it does so mainly as a counterpoint to his centr al
interests
in needs, problems and diswelfare. Many people would argue,
as Tawney
did, that the problem of poverty is also the problem of wealth:
Orton
and Rowlingson, for example, argue that ‘it is high time social
policy
analysts put riches on the agenda’.7 The simple truth, however,
is that
the study of social policy hasn’t been genuinely concerned with
riches,
and the kind of material which is studied in courses in social
policy
departments and published in social policy journals does not
normally
include studies of the position of the relatively advantaged,
unless it
is done by way of contrast. There is a good reason for this:
studying
the lifestyles of the rich tells us little or nothing that we need to
know
about practice. People who are preparing for public service are
much
more likely to be concerned with disadvantage, deprivation and
social
protection.
Social policy, at its core, is the study of social welfare and the
social
services. The main areas which it studies are
• policy and administrative practice in health
administration, social
security, education, employment services, community care and
housing management;

37. • the circumstances in which people’s welfare is likely to be
impaired, including disability, unemployme nt, mental illness,
intellectual disability, and old age;
• social problems, like crime, addiction and family
breakdown;
• issues relating to social disadvantage, including ‘race’,
gender and
poverty; and
• the range of collective social responses to these
circumstances.
This is often interpreted in terms of responses by the ‘welfare
state’, but in different countries it may equally be understood
as extending to mutual aid, voluntary effort or industrial
organisation.
Several generalisations might be made about this field of study.
7 M Orton, K Rowlingson, 2007, A problem of riches, Journal
of Social Policy
36(1) pp p 75.
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
5
Introduction
1. Social policy is about welfare The idea of welfare is used

38. in a
number of different ways. In its widest sense, welfare can mean
‘well-being’, and in that sense it is taken to mean the benefit
of individuals or groups, which is the way the term is used in
economics; people increase their ‘welfare’ when their material
goods increase and lead to increased satisfaction. However, the
idea also refers, more narrowly, to certain sorts of collective
provision which attempt to protect people’s welfare. ‘Social
welfare’ commonly refers to the range of services provided by
the state. (It should be noted that ‘welfare’ is also sometimes
used,
particularly in the United States and more recently in the UK,
to refer to certain types of benefit, especially means-tested
social
security, which are aimed at people who are poor.) There is no
‘correct’ usage, and there is considerable scope for confusion,
because people writing about welfare may want to refer to any
of the different uses.
Social policy is sometimes represented as being about ‘well -
being’ in general. Fiona Williams, for example, describes the
field as studying ‘the relationship between welfare and society,
and different views on the best means of maximising welfare in
society’.8 Hartley Dean writes:
Think for a moment about the things you need to make
life wor th living: essential ser vices, such as healthcare
and education; a means of livelihood, such as a job and
money; vital but intangible things, such as love and security.
Now think about the ways in which these can be organized:
by government and official bodies; through businesses, social
groups, charities, local associations and churches; through
neighbours, families and loved ones. Understanding these
things is the stuff of social policy.9
Hartley and I have disagreed about this.10 Social policy is

39. concerned with well-being, but it isn’t about well-being in all
its forms. It does not have much to do with the good things of
life; for example, despite what he says about ‘vital but
intangible
8 F Williams, 1989, Social policy: a critical introduction,
Brighton: Polity, p.13.
9 H Dean, 2005, Social Policy, Brighton: Polity, pp 1–2.
10 P Spicker, 2004, Saving social policy, Policy World 1(1) 8–
9; H Dean,
2004, What next for social policy?, www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi -bin/
webadmin?A2=social–policy;3328cad7.0412
EBSCOhost - printed on 2/15/2021 6:53 AM via INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY SLIGO. All use subject to
https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
6
Social policy
things’, the subject has very little to say about love, partnership
and emotional nurturing. Nor is it even about ‘the study of
the social relations necessary for human well-being’;11 that
does include needs, but it seems to include studies of family,
friendship, religion, leisure, commerce and entertainment, and
the
study of social relations in these general terms is the province
of
sociology rather than social policy. It is much more true to say
that social policy is concerned with people who lack well-being
– people with particular problems or needs – and the services
which provide for them. The kinds of issue which social policy

40. tends to be concerned with, then, include problems like poverty,
poor housing, mental illness, and disability. The boundaries are
indistinct, however, because often people’s needs have to be
understood in terms of the facilities available to others; our idea
of good housing, an adequate income or good health affects our
view of …