Communication, Co-ordination and Implementation

Abstract

The process of communicating policies, whether between central and local government or between chief officers and their local field staff, is crucial to the way in which policy is implemented. This article is concerned with the quality of communication networks which converge upon the Social Services Departments of local authorities. It examines these networks in terms of their effect upon the implementation of equal opportunity policy for ethnic minorities. It considers in particular the types of communication which largely determine relations between the Department of Health and Social Security and local Social Services Departments, the amount of contact between ethnic minority communities and social services personnel and, finally, the problems of communication between different groups of staff within the Social Services Department. The article concludes that, under adverse economic circumstances, the quality of communication channels tends to deteriorate and that, as a consequence, the implementation of equal opportunity policy may be further undermined.