The Changing Face of Welfare and Roles of Voluntary Organisations

Abstract

This chapter traces key changes and continuities in public policy and political ideology, mapping influences on voluntary sector change in the UK for over a century, while emphasising recent developments. There has been a tendency for research to examine British social welfare policy in terms of statutory services, treating the voluntary sector as an addendum. Yet historically, welfare provision has relied on a combination of public, private and voluntary sector agencies, alongside individual voluntary action, and the chapter considers the voluntary sector's long history of providing humanitarian welfare and its role in social action. The chapter also introduces theoretical frameworks through which changes discussed in this and subsequent chapters can be better understood. The rationale for the development of the voluntary sector at various times has been as a response to both state and market failures to adequately address social welfare and the chapter critically examines the sector's growth over the last 25 years in this light. It considers the paradoxical influence of government agencies in both recognising voluntary sector expertise and also constraining independent models through arrangements associated with the marketisation of welfare, increased regulation and monitoring, and dominant managerial cultures.