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Consumer Opinion and Social Policy: A Research Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Ian Shaw
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Abstract

Developments in the realms of social work practice, writing and research have provided fuel for the claim that the opinion of the consumer should exercise a formative influence in the development of policies impinging on the social services. However, it is difficult to decide when the opinion of the consumer has been understood. Also, even when the views of consumers are known, the question of how these views are utilized in the formulation of policies remains problematic. Furthermore, weaknesses in the research strategies of recent studies limit the applicability of policy recommendations which occur in this literature.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 19 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 The discovery of consumer opinion is the major concern of the following studies: Voelcker, P. M., ‘Juvenile Courts: The Parents' Point of View’, Br. J. Criminology 1 (2), 1960, pp. 154–66Google Scholar; Mayer, J. and Timms, N., The Client Speaks, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970Google Scholar; McKay, A., Goldberg, E. M. and Fruin, D. J., ‘Consumers and a Social Services Department’, Social Work Today 4 (16), 1973, pp. 486–91Google Scholar; Triseliotis, J., In Search of Origins, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973Google Scholar; Marsden, D., Mothers Alone, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973Google Scholar; Morris, P., Cooper, J. and Byles, A., ‘Public Attitudes to Problem Definition and Problem Solving’, Br. J. Social Work 3 (3), 1973, pp. 301–20Google Scholar; Gill, O., Whitegate: An Approved School in Transition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1974Google Scholar; Sainsbury, E., Social Work with Families, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975Google Scholar. It is a partial concern in the following: Butrym, Z., Medical Social Work in Action, Occasional Papers on Social Administration, London: Bell, 1968Google Scholar; Cohen, A., ‘Consumer View: Retarded Mothers and the Social Services’, Social Work Today 1 (12), 1971, pp. 39–43Google Scholar; Goldberg, E. M., Helping the Aged, London: Allen and Unwin, 1970Google Scholar; Bayley, M., Mental Handicap and Community Care, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973Google Scholar; see also Timms, N., The Receiving End, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973Google Scholar; Shaw, M., Social Work in Prison, London: HMSO, 1974.Google Scholar

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5 Platt, J., Social Research in Bethnal Green, London: Macmillan, 1971CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Introduction. Working-class people still form the bulk of social service clients, although the elderly and chronically sick and handicapped probably cut across class lines.

6 See fn. 1 above.

7 This review is concerned with the sociological or methodological contributions made by the literature only in so far as these impinge on the way in which policy recommendations are formulated.

8 Mayer and Timms, ibid., p. 1.

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11 In the light of our earlier comments, it is worth recalling that Marsden has been associated with the work of the Institute of Community Studies for some years.

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13 This section is indebted to ideas outlined by Noel Timms in his Introduction to The Receiving End, op. cit.

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21 Op. cit.

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23 Ibid., pp. 2–3.

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25 For instance, the studies by Butrym, Gill, and Mayer and Timms.

26 This point is discussed in Platt, , op. cit.Google Scholar, Ch. 2, and in Marris, P. and Rein, M., Dilemmas of Social Reform, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, Ch. 8.Google Scholar

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35 Gill uses participant observation, but attempts no independent assessment of the setting.

36 Cf. Morris, et al. , op. cit.Google Scholar; Smith, G. and Harris, R., ‘Ideologies of Need and the Organisation of Social Work Departments’, Br. J. Socinl Work 2 (1), 1972, pp. 27–45.Google Scholar

37 As an example of this, using life histories, see Manocchio, A. J. and Dunn, J., The Time Came: Two views of a Prison, Beverley Hills: Sage, 1970.Google Scholar

38 Butrym, , op. cit.Google Scholar

39 Cf. Neill, J. E., Fruin, D. J., Goldberg, E. M. and Warburton, R. W., ‘Reactions to Integration’, Social Work Today 4 (15), 1973, pp. 458–65.Google Scholar

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41 Marsden, , op. cit., pp. 8–10, Ch. 12Google Scholar. Sainsbury's recent research with Family Service Unit families (Social Work with Families, op. cit.) is a significant advance on earlier studies in that he sampled agency-client relationships.

42 Stevenson, O., Editorial, Br. J. Social Work 3 (3), 1973, p. 299.Google Scholar

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44 The criticism of conservatism can be modified by distinguishing, as does Rein, between ‘needs-resource’ research, ‘distributive’ research and ‘allocative’ research. Much social work research in the past has been of the ‘needs-resource’ kind, aimed at identifying disparities between needs and services, and leading almost inevitably to a demand for more services of the kind already existing. The research reviewed here is mainly ‘distributive’ in character, aimed at the reallocation of existing resources within the social services. As such, it is less conservative, in that the existing form of services does not remain unquestioned. Its conservatism lies in leaving aside the possibility that alternative programmes are needed to reach the stated objective. (Rein, M., Social Policy, New York: Random House, 1970, Ch. 22.)Google Scholar

45 A weakness of Bayley's careful study is that recommendations are drawn largely from the fifty-three intensive visits to the homes, and the extensive analysis carried out of records of all cases of mental handicap in Sheffield is largely overlooked.