This chapter explores the extent to which policy and practice in Scotland in the key areas of care, citizenship and community contrasts with that presented for the rest of the UK. The extent to which there is evidence for difference, both before and after devolution, is examined. It is suggested that a succession of shifts can be identified: from a privileging of community interests evident across social welfare, housing and community regeneration to a greater emphasis currently on partnership working, and from a concept of communal benefit to individual personalisation.

Traditionally, social welfare practice in Scotland has been portrayed as distinctive from that elsewhere in the UK. Section 12 of the 1968 Social Work (Scotland) Act is cited as placing a unique duty on every local authority:

There is a common perception that the community social work model promoted within the Barclay Report (1982) and subsequent initiatives (for example Hearn and Thomson, 1987; Darvill and Smale, 1990) gained a stronger following in Scotland. It is difficult to assemble definitive evidence on this argument but there have been well-regarded and well-documented examples through the former National Institute for Social Work of teams operating on this model (Crosbie et al, 1987, 1989; Smale and Bennett, 1989). Certainly a period spent with the Badenoch and Strathspey team in 1987 highlighted a way of working very much rooted in the local community. A more systematic evaluation, of the Age Concern Aberdeen Informal Support and Care Project, was reported by Gordon and Donald (1993) who considered the effectiveness of weaving together informal and formal networks in providing support for older people.

The features attributed to the community social work model can be linked to other initiatives within social welfare and the social economy in Scotland, which are characterised by a focus on community capital and on participation by local stakeholders.