| Author: | Arthur Radford, |
|---|
Professor of Social Administration, University of Nottingham. Published by the National Council of Social Service, 26 Bedford Square, W.C.I. 19 pp. 2s.
In a short but very comprehensive pamphlet, Professor Radford describes the revolution which in the past forty years " has turned from assistance to insurance and from insurance to assurance ", and the fundamental change with which the people of this country to-day view the social services. The increase in social legislation has come, he says, not through one particular party or group, not through one particular election, but because the community in general wants to be well educated, to have good health and to be insured " from the cradle to the grave ".
The distinction between statutory and voluntary bodies, he points out, is in many respects a narrow one, for both come into existence because of the will of the people and because of a sense of responsibility.
" The springs of action creating voluntary and statutory bodies in a society which is generally aware of its responsibilities, are identical. " Even in one small village to-day, there seems to be a difficulty in distinguishing between the personnel concerned with statutory activity and the personnel interested in voluntary work.
" There is no place for a battle of principle on statutory versus voluntary action."
Even in the Statutes themselves?for health, for the aged, for the young, there are definite injunctions to statutory bodies to associate themselves with voluntary bodies, and the ever-increasing need for voluntary workers to implement the new legislation is proving a great tax on people of good will. D.C.K.