Over the 50 years since 1970 there have been several step changes in the personal social services. This chapter considers what has led to these changes in legislation, in organisational arrangements, and in policy and practice. As is noted below, it has been commented and assumed, in particular, that the major inquiries following public and political concern prompted by the press – especially following the deaths of children – have been at the root of legislation that has reshaped and reset local authority social services, but this is too simplistic, and indeed misleading, as an explanation for the legislative changes that have occurred.

What has happened, however, is that the focus of social work practice and of the personal social services over the last 50 years has been shaped and skewed by inquiries, as well as by media coverage, that have often followed an awful event such as the killing of a child or a killing by someone with a mental disorder. This has generated an overwhelming focus on risk and on actions to minimise and manage risk, and this has trumped in importance the provision of help and assistance to people in difficulty.

The impact of scandal and concern on legislation

It has been assumed (Hopkins, 2007; International Centre for Therapeutic Child Care, 2011) that it was the death of Dennis O’Neill and the subsequent inquiry (Monckton, 1945) that led to the government setting up the Curtis Committee (Care of Children Committee, 1946), which in turn spawned the 1948 Children Act. Roy Parker (Parker, 1983), however, noted that the Act's genesis was in the government's concerns, which had started to arise as early as 1943, about what care should be provided for children who had been evacuated during the war and who were now unable to return, for whatever reasons, to the care of their parents. Parker commented: