COORDINATION AND POLICY FOR THE HEALTH AND PERSONAL SOCIAL SERVICES, 1971–1981

Collaboration and coordination were explored in the research by detailed investigation of two policy areas at both central and local government levels. The areas were day care for children under five and policy for elderly people. These two ‘tracers’ were chosen from several possible candidates. As chapter I made clear, policy statements about the health and personal social services have, for many years, stressed the importance of collaboration. Particular examples have included statements about specific client groups like mentally handicapped and mentally ill people, but the drive towards coordination has been evident in documents with a wider remit like the Consultative Document in 1976, Care in Action in 1981 and before that, the circular in 1972 which launched the ‘Ten Year Plan’ initiative. This circular provides a convenient point at which to begin a more detailed account of the development of the idea of coordination in relation to the health and personal social services than was given in chapter I, an account which will also make clearer the reasons for choosing children under five and elderly people as the two tracer groups.