After five years of Labour government it is not surprising that attention has now switched away from the Conservative years and has been replaced instead by assessments of the extent to which Labour has ‘made a difference’. This, in a sense, provides something of a theme for the four chapters in this section. Given the centrality of constitutional and governmental reform to the agenda of the 1997-2001 Labour government, it is perhaps inevitable that devolution is starting to have an impact on social policy. While this has been immediately apparent in some of the policy decisions made by the devolved administrations, the concerns addressed in the chapters by Byrne and Tomlinson go beyond the immediate impact of individual policies to questions of resource distribution. Byrne, writing from the perspective of the North East of England, focuses on issues of sub-national resource distribution in the UK and the importance of these in determining policy opportunities, particularly at regional level. He considers ways in which we might understand public expenditure patterns and what this may mean for resource distribution in relation to issues of territorial justice. Tomlinson, focusing on Northern Ireland, considers the implications of the new constitutional arrangements for social policy. This is a geographical area frequently neglected in the literature, and as such this contribution is to be welcomed. He considers the issue of resource allocation between different components of the UK and examines arguments for changing conventions that have been in place for over 20 years. The impact of the 1998 Northern Ireland Act and the challenges presented by constitutional reform for social policy in Northern Ireland are also explored.

The chapter by Wilkin and Glendinning and that by Walker direct attention to some of the other concerns under Labour, such as reform of public services, service delivery, policy implementation, choice and inclusion. Wilkin and Glendinning consider the creation of Primary Care Groups and Trusts, the thinking behind these and their potential for reforming the NHS, as part of the government's ‘modernisation’ agenda. This chapter highlights the tensions between the demands of central government for tighter management and control, the rhetoric of devolved power, and the political challenge of meeting public expectations in this area.