Care in The Community - The Impact of The Community Care Reforms

The Impact of The Community Care Reforms

The community care reforms outlined in the 1990 Act have been in operation since April 1993. They have been evaluated but no clear conclusions have been reached. A number of authors have been highly critical of the reforms. Hadley and Clough (1996) claim the reforms 'have created care in chaos' (Hadley and Clough 1996) They claim the reforms have been inefficient, unresponsive, offering no choice or equity. Other authors however, are not quite so pessimistic.

Means and Smith (1998) claim that the reforms:

  • introduced a system that is no better than the previous more bureaucratic systems of resource allocation
  • were an excellent idea, but received little understanding or commitment from social services as the lead agency in community care
  • the enthusiasm of local authorities was undermined by vested professional interests, or the service legacy of the last forty years
  • health services and social services workers have not worked well together and there have been few 'multidisciplinary' assessments carried out
  • in reality little collaboration took place except at senior management level
  • the reforms have been undermined by chronic underfunding by central government
  • the voluntary sector was the main beneficiary of this attempt to develop a "mixed economy of care"

Read more about this topic:  Care In The Community

Famous quotes containing the words impact, community, care and/or reforms:

    “Conquest is the missionary of valour, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.”
    —Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)

    “The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure—but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.”
    —Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)

    “My lord endures
    much care of mind.He remembers too often
    a happier dwelling.Woe be to them
    that for a loved onemust wait in longing.”
    —Unknown. The Wife’s Lament (l. 50–53)

    “One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is a change in our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a financial panic.”
    —William Howard Taft (1857–1930)