Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy in Britain

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy: Twenty Years of Change

   • Margaret Harris, Colin Rochester, Peter Halfpenny

   Pages 1-20

3. Public Policy, Social Policy and Voluntary Organisations

   • Nicholas Deakin

   Pages 21-36

4. Tackling Social Exclusion: The Contribution of Voluntary Organisations

   • David Billis

   Pages 37-48

5. Contracting: The Experience of Service Delivery Agencies

   • Duncan W. Scott, Lynne Russell

   Pages 49-63

6. Regulation: The Impact on Local Voluntary Action

   • Colin Rochester

   Pages 64-80

7. Regeneration: The Role and Impact of Local Development Agencies

   • Stephen P. Osborne, Kathleen Ross

   Pages 81-93

8. Partnership: Insiders and Outsiders

   • Marilyn Taylor

   Pages 94-107

9. Providers of Care for Older People: The Experience of Community Care

   • Jeremy Kendall, Martin Knapp

   Pages 108-123

10. Grant-Making Foundations: Policy Shapers or Policy Takers?

    • Diana Leat

    Pages 124-140

11. International Development NGOs: Policy Conflict and Convergence

    • David Lewis

    Pages 141-153

12. Non-profit Housing Agencies: ‘Reading’ and Shaping the Policy Agenda

    • David Mullins, Moyra Riseborough

    Pages 154-170

13. Boards: Just Subsidiaries of the State?

    • Margaret Harris

    Pages 171-184

14. Volunteers: Making a Difference?

    • Justin Davis Smith

    Pages 185-198

15. Users: At the Centre or on the Sidelines?

    • Michael Locke, Paul Robson, Steven Howlett

    Pages 199-212

16. Voluntary Organisations in a Changing Social Policy Environment

    • Margaret Harris

    Pages 213-228

17. Back Matter

    Pages 229-240

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The last two decades of the twentieth century saw the most fundamental changes in British social policy since the creation of the welfare state in the 1940s. From Margaret Thatcher's radical reassessment of the role of the state to Tony Blair's 'Third Way', the voluntary sector has been at the heart of these changes. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, voluntary organisations have been cast in leading roles on the social policy stage. They are expected to make key contributions to countering social exclusion; to regenerating communities; to providing social housing and welfare services; to promoting international aid and development; and to developing and sustaining democratic participation and the active community.

But how are voluntary sector organisations grappling with the implications of their new, expanded role? How is their relationship with the state changing in practice? This book, which has its origins in an international conference of leading academics in the field, provides answers to these pressing questions. It analyses the numerous and complex ways in which the formulation and implementation of social policy is dependent on the contributions of the voluntary sector. It discusses the impact of the new policy environment on voluntary organisations. And it suggests that the successful implementation of social policy requires government to acknowledge and nurture the distinctive features and contributions of voluntary sector organisations. Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy in Britain is essential reading not only for the many people studying, working in or working with the voluntary sector in Britain but also for anyone who is interested in the formulation and implementation of social policy.

• conflict
• Policy
• social policy

• Aston University Business School, UK

  Margaret Harris

• Centre for Voluntary Organisation, London School of Economics, UK

  Margaret Harris

• University of Surrey, Roehampton, UK

  Colin Rochester

MARGARET HARRIS is Professor of Voluntary Sector Organisation at Aston Business School and was formerly Assistant Director of the Centre for Voluntary Organisation at the London School of Economics. She edited (with David Billis) Voluntary Agencies: Challenges of Organisation and Management and is the author of Organising God's Work. She is International Editor of the journal Nonprofit Management and Leadership.

COLIN ROCHESTER is Consultancy Leader and Principal Lecturer, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Management, at the University of Surrey, Roehampton. He has more than thirty years' experience of working in and with the voluntary and community sectors as practitioner, manager, consultant and researcher. He has published widely on sector issues and devised and co-edited An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector with Justin Davis Smith.

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