Introduction

From a lukewarm beginning (Baldwin, 2002), New Labour's social care policy has come to the boil, with the changes introduced symbolic of their ambiguous approach to public policy – full of rhetoric on individual empowerment, but relentless in the unshackling of private capital to develop services. In this chapter I will look at what has changed in social care over the Blair years and how much it has changed. I will look at whether policy development reflects modernisation as conceptualised by 6 and Peck (2004), and evaluate the order of change, if any, from Conservative social policy using the Hall (1993) model.

The law relating to social care has always been different in England and Wales from Scotland and Northern Ireland, but devolution has made changes in the social care arena in the four countries that have not always been congruent. These differences need to be acknowledged, and some will be addressed.

Policy developments under New Labour

Since coming to power in 1997 New Labour has been active in the social care arena, producing a White Paper in 1998, Modernising social services (DH, 1998), and major policy initiatives for children and families, in the shape of the Green Paper Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003), and the White Paper Our health, our care, our say (DH, 2006) (see Table 5.1).

I shall look at the way in which these policy developments have reflected the themes of modernisation as classified by 6 and Peck (2004). The first is coordination and integration, which is also defined in the social care context as partnership, inter-agency working and inter-professional practice. These are concepts debated elsewhere (see Ovretveit et al, 1997; Onyett, 2003; Barrett et al, 2005; Glendinning et al, 2005; Quinney, 2006), and I will look at them as attempts to tackle the ‘Berlin Wall’ (DH, 1998) between social care and other services. An extended role for private capital has been argued as one way of ensuring choice for service users. In the social care context the latter theme would also include user involvement, and empowerment, within a consumerist framework. Central standard setting, with its emphasis on regulation and quality, will be discussed along with inspection – also a 6 and Peck theme.