Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Part One -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Structure of the book -- 1.2 Using the terms 'privatisation' and 'marketisation' -- Chapter 2 Privatisation -- 2.1 Origins in industrial and economic policy -- 2.2 Models of privatisation -- 2.3 Why was privatisation possible? -- 2.4 The claimed benefits of privatisation -- 2.5 Methods of privatisation -- 2.6 Privatisation and the social welfare services -- 2.7 What sorts of competition are possible in social welfare? -- 2.8 Summary -- Chapter 3 Privatisation, the Utilities and Social Policy -- 3.1 Privatisation and the utilities -- 3.2 Poorest customers and privatisation -- 3.3 The regulator -- 3.4 Summary -- Part Two -- Chapter 4 Housing -- 4.1 What did the Conservatives inherit? -- 4.2 Results of the Right to Buy -- 4.3 Reforms in the second half of the 1980s onwards -- 4.4 Making an assessment -- 4.5 Summary -- Chapter 5 Social Security -- 5.1 Early reforms -- 5.2 The Fowler Reviews -- 5.3 Peter Lilley and 'sectoral reform' -- 5.4 Personal pensions -- 5.5 Child Support Agency and the Next Steps initiative -- 5.6 Privatisation, social security and the individual -- 5.7 Summary -- Chapter 6 Education -- 6.1 Early days -- 6.2 The Education Reform Act 1988 -- 6.3 After the Reform Act -- 6.4 Assessing the reforms -- 6.5 Privatisation, education and the individual -- 6.6 Summary -- Chapter 7 Social Services -- 7.1 Charging -- 7.2 Social services and the contract culture -- 7.3 Outcomes in the contract culture -- 7.4 Summary -- Chapter 8 Health -- 8.1 Founding principles -- 8.2 The privatiser's lament -- 8.3 After 1979 -- 8.4 Developing old themes -- 8.5 Creating new approaches -- 8.6 Assessing the reforms -- 8.7 Summary -- Part Three.

Austerity in Wales has to be understood in the context of the more general budgetary limitations created by the out-dated Barnett formula and the current debates in Wales (and Scotland) about the ways in which devolved functions should be funded in the future. This paper identifies the key measures which successive administrations have taken in support of an essentially Keynesian, counter-cyclical approach to countering recession in Wales. It traces the outcomes of the May 2011 Assembly election and the emerging policy and legislative agenda of the minority Labour administration which that election produced. The paper ends by placing these developments within the wider austerity agenda pursued by the Westminster coalition and its deleterious impact on Wales.

This article aims to provide an insider's account of post-devolution policy making in Wales. It focuses on the work of the Welsh Assembly Government in the field of social justice and argues that a set of distinctive and internally coherent principles can be seen in operation across the responsibilities which the Assembly discharges. These include a belief in the usefulness of government, a commitment to progressive universalism, a preference for cooperation rather than competition as a means of improving standards of public services, and the pursuit of equality of outcome, rather than simply opportunity. The article concludes that these principles reflect the underlying preferences of Welsh voters, as expressed in the political make-up of the devolved Assembly.

Devolution in a Welsh context has transferred social policy responsibilities to the National Assembly. Health has a dominant presence amongst these responsibilities, both in terms of budget commitment and political salience. This paper explores the context in which Assembly health policy making has taken place, looking at economic, administrative and political dimensions, identifying elements of continuity and change in the Assembly Government's approach to health matters. The paper argues that while policy making has been far-reaching, the implementation of that policy agenda has proved problematic. It concludes that both social policy academics and politicians have underestimated the ways in which barriers to reform can be mobilized, including the way in which health policy debates are presented in the media, even when radicalism has been established in policy intent.

This commentary deals with recent, rapid developments in the field of private residential care of older people. It traces changes in the pattern of ownership and regulation, and explores the extent to which these impact upon the protection of the public interest. It concludes that the nature of ownership continues to matter in social welfare, and that regulation has proved of limited effectiveness in securing the interests of older people in private care.

This brief article looks forward to the prospects for devolved government in Wales under the third term of a New Labour administration at Westminster. Four different strands are discussed in what follows: the development of devolution itself, including the prospects of a second Government of Wales Bill, the state of the Welsh economy, the development of a distinctively Welsh social policy agenda and the future leadership of the Welsh Assembly Government itself.