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The nature of the professional task in welfare services is constantly changing. These changes are not confined to Britain but are widespread across the developed world and include initiatives to develop new professional roles and redesign existing services. Central to these initiatives is an assumption that the professions, and the individual professionals involved, will be willing and able to adapt their professional practice. The challenges inevitably posed by these developments appear to have been played down, particularly in respect of the role played by the boundaries between professions. This article considers the nature of boundaries before exploring these service developments as a means to highlight the issues they raise. The article contends that for these developments to work we need to move beyond the current focus on the role of education, training and regulation which structure professional boundaries to appreciate the 'human and social aspects' of these changes in order to understand how individual professionals perceive and experience the boundaries between professional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of the “housing support” worker and considers the contribution the role can make to the modernization of welfare services. Although the role is inextricably linked to a growing appreciation of the relationship between housing and wellbeing the paper also considers a range of other drivers that may have had an impact on the emergence of the role. The housing support worker role may, for example, be seen as a response to developments within the social work profession as well as to wider debates about how to support adults with complex needs. The development of roles, such as the housing support worker, that work across organizational boundaries are not without their challenges. This paper explores the drivers behind the development of the housing support role and then, using data from the Supporting People Health Pilots programme evaluation, considers issues about the preparation and support required for those working in these roles to ensure that their potential contribution is maximized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]