Elizabeth Macadam had succeeded D'Aeth at the School of Social Science on his transfer to the LCVA in 1909. Significantly, she was appointed as Lecturer in Method and Administration and not in Social Work as might have been expected: social work was still not accepted as an academic discipline. In that capacity, she had built up a considerable reputation as a pioneer of personnel management. In 1919, after ten years at the School, she had left Liverpool for London, where she was later joined by Eleanor Rathbone. Since then, she had been absorbed in the development of the Joint University Council for Social Studies, a truly D'Aethian enterprise aimed at the coordination of the efforts of all those involved in the training of social workers. She was, at the same time, an officer of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, a large non-party women's organisation with branches all over the country, most of which included among their activities the education of women voters. As a by-product of this experience, she had come to appreciate the fact that the propriety of the academic study of social problems was winning recognition, with increasing attention being paid to the training of social workers in what was coming to be called ‘casework’.

Supremely conscious of the complexities of the administration of the expanding welfare services, it was evident to Macadam that there was urgent need for attention to be paid to the evolving relationship between the growing state welfare provision and the voluntary sector. The administration of this was a neglected and barren topic.