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Policies to Promote Informal Social Care: Some Reflections on Voluntary Action, Neighbourhood Involvement, and Neighbourhood Care*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Philip Abrams  and
Martin Bulmer
Philip Abrams
Affiliation:
Professor of Sociology at the University of Durham until his death in October 1981.
Martin Bulmer
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Social Administration, London School of Economics, Houghton St, London WC2A 2AE, England.
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Abstract

Policies to promote informal social care have particular importance for elderly people, since a substantial minority of them are in receipt of informal care from kin, neighbours and friends, and the majority of those living in their own homes who receive informal care are themselves elderly. Yet informal care has not had the attention it deserves, compared to care provided by statutory, commercial or organised voluntary effort. This paper focuses on neighbourhood care, drawing on the results of a five-year research programme. Three types of neighbourhood care are examined: voluntary action for neighbourhood involvement, voluntary action for informal care, and voluntary action for neighbourhood care. Neighbourhood involvement is increasingly a political matter, with local organisation tied to specific local issues. Informal care has little directly to do with local involvement. Nine-tenths of such care is provided by kin, though there is scope for greater local action. Voluntary action for neighbourhood care is encouraged particularly by pressure-group activism, self-help organisations and support for carers. Effective informal care requires a higher degree of competence and the establishment of contexts for reciprocity. Policies in this area need to provide modest financial resources, greater information exchange and support for carers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

NOTES

1 Abrams, P. ‘Community care: some research problems and priorities’. In Barnes, J. and Connelly, N. (eds.), Social Care Research. Policy Studies Institute and Bedford Square Press, London 1978, pp. 78–99.Google Scholar

2 Abrams, P.Neighbourhood Care and Social Policy: a Research Perspective. The Volunteer Centre, Berkhamsted, Herts, 1978.Google Scholar

3 Abrams, P. ‘Social change, social networks and neighbourhood care’, Social Work Service 22 (02 1980), 12–23.Google Scholar

4 Robinson, F. and Abrams, P.What We Know About the Neighbours. Rowntree Reseach Unit, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Durham, 1977.Google Scholar Cf. also Robinson, F. and Robinson, S.Neighbourhood Care: an Exploratory Bibliography. The Volunteer Centre, Berkhamsted, Herts, 1981.Google Scholar

5 Abrams, P., Abrams, S., Humphrey, R. and Snaith, R.Action for Care: A review of Good Neighbour Schemes in England. The Volunteer Centre, Berkhamsted, Herts, 1981Google Scholar, and Abrams, P., Abrams, S., Humphrey, R. and Snaith, R.A Handbook of Good Neighbour Schemes in England. The Volunteer Centre, Berkhamsted, Herts, 1982.Google Scholar

6 This is discussed further in Abrams, P. ‘Social change, social networks and neighbourhood care’Google Scholar, op. cit. and in Abrams, P. ‘Realities of neighbourhood care: the interactions between statutory, voluntary and informal social care’, Policy and Politics 12, 4, 1984, 413–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 For some illuminating recent discussions of the concept of ‘care’ see Weiss, R. S. ‘The provisions of social relationships’. In Rubin, Z. (ed.), Doing Unto Others: Joining, Molding, Conforming, Helping, Loving. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1973, pp. 17–26Google Scholar; Parker, R. ‘Tending and social policy’. In Goldberg, E. M. and Hatch, S. (eds), A New Look at the Personal Social Services. Policy Studies Institute, London, 1981, pp. 17–34Google Scholar; and Finch, J. and Groves, D. (eds), A Labour of Love: Women, Work and Caring. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1983.Google Scholar

8 Cf. Brokensha, D. and Hodge, P.Community Development: an Interpretation. Chandler Publishing, San Francisco, 1969Google Scholar; Goetschius, G. W.Working with Community Groups. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1969Google Scholar; Baldock, P.Community Work and Social Work. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1974, esp. pp. 36–59Google Scholar; Butcher, H., Collis, P., Glen, A. and Sills, P.Community Groups in Action. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1980.Google Scholar

9 The Wolfenden Report, The Future of Voluntary Organisations. Croom Helm, London, 1978.Google Scholar

10 Jones, K., Brown, J. and Bradshaw, J.Issues in Social Policy. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1978, p. 80.Google Scholar

11 Cf. Lees, R. and Smith, G. (eds), Action-Research in Community Development. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1975Google Scholar; Loney, M.Community Against Government:the British Community Development Project 1968–1978. Heinemann, London, 1983.Google Scholar

12 For one recent example of research documenting this finding, see Wenger, C.The Supportive Network: coping with old age. Allen & Unwin, London, 1984, pp. 69–100.Google Scholar

13 These findings are documented in Bulmer, , Neighbours, op. cit., chapters 8 to 10.Google Scholar

14 See Bulmer, , Neighbours, op. cit., chapter 4.Google Scholar

15 Kropotkin, P.Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Heinemann, London, 1915.Google Scholar See also Bulmer, , Neighbours, op. cit., chapter 6.Google Scholar

16 Abrams, et al. Action for Care, op. cit.Google Scholar

17 These points are elaborated in Bulmer, , Neighbours, op. cit., chapter 12.Google Scholar

18 See also Abrams, P. ‘Evaluating soft findings from non-experiments: some problems of measuring informal care’, Research, Policy and Planning 2, 2, 1984.Google Scholar

19 The Future of Voluntary Organisations, op. cit., p. 28.

20 Collins, A. H. and Pancoast, D.Natural Helping Networks: a strategy for prevention. National Association of Social Workers, Washington D.C., 1976.Google Scholar

21 Ibid. pp. 113–42.