For Europe and North America there is a large literature devoted to the evaluation of social policies; for the Caribbean it is often difficult to find out what the policies are, much less how they are actually implemented. Most social welfare agencies in the Commonwealth West Indies have the shape and direction which they acquired during the colonial period, and in spite of some recent new departures it is to that period we must refer in order to understand the present situation. The last major review of social policy in the West Indies was occasioned by the riots and disturbances of the late 1930s, which led to the appointment of a Royal Commission and the subsequent passage of the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts of 1940 and 1945. Independence from Britain has not generally resulted in a searching examination of social policy, rhetoric to the contrary. The tendency seems to be to try to bring the area into line with a universal modern practice, suitable or not, for no politician wishes to appear to be unprogressive. This paper is not intended as a review of social policy, even in the restricted area of the family. Others will have to undertake that task. Its more modest aim is to re-examine the premises on which the policies of the terminal phase of colonial rule were based, to ask how they appear in the light of more recent work on the family, and then in the final section, and with the greatest hesitation, to suggest some implications of this work for the formulation of policy bearing on the family.