'They just don't live and breathe the policy like we do…': Policy Intentions and Practice Dilemmas in Modern Social Policy and Implementation Networks

Abstract

This paper examines how social policy institutions, such as Scottish Homes, the national housing agency in Scotland, pursue their policy goals in an environment that is increasingly requiring them to consider how these policies are joined up with other social policy institutions' aims and objectives. It also examines how actors within multi-organizational implementation networks interpret and act upon Scottish Homes' policy guidance, especially when it conflicts with other social policy goals that they are also required to pursue. In doing this, the paper aims to enhance our understanding of the complexity of what is going on in increasingly 'joined-up' social policy and implementation networks, as much as it aims to suggest how the efficiency of what goes on therein can be improved.