Chapter 3: Establishing the business.

This chapter focuses on the establishment of the social work business in Great Britain. The account of the establishment of the social work business begins by exploring general aspects of the pressure on nation states to become more business-like and highlights the significance of the political strategies used by individual nation states to position social welfare in relation to the global economy. The framework most frequently employed to describe changes in social welfare since the 1970s has been the mixed economy of welfare. This framework has been used to chart accounts of the changing patterns of social welfare delivery. Analysis of these changes within wider theoretical perspectives, which position social welfare developments in relation to economic forces and changes in the state, has been less pronounced. The post-Fordist welfare state thesis has attempted to articulate such links between economic forces, state forms and social welfare. It locates changes in social welfare within a wider analysis of the transformation of capitalist societies in response to the demands of the global economy. Of all the European social welfare regimes, that of the British welfare state under Thatcher and Major was the regime most exposed to the New Right agenda of privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation. Four developments were identified as essential to the transformation of social work: (1) the introduction of market mechanisms, (2) the promotion of competition leading to efficiency gains and savings, (3) the keeping of state provision to a minimum and (4) the pursuit of individualism and individual choice.