It is often claimed that before the NHS areas with the highest need for health care had the least provision. In other words, it is asserted that the so-called ‘inverse care law’ (Hart, 1971) existed. This claim is empirically tested for the hospital sector, using needs and provision data from a number of sources. It is found that, for the voluntary hospital sector, both beds and staff were inequitably distributed. However, for the municipal hospital sector, it appears that high need areas tended to have more beds and staff than low need areas. When both sectors are aggregated to produce total provision there is little association between need and bed provision, but inequitable provision for staffing. Thus, it is concluded that municipal provision was successful to some extent in rectifying the inequitable nature of voluntary provision.

British debates on citizenship often start from an examination of the important work of T.H. Marshall (1950). This paper is no exception. It is argued that Marshall confuses ‘rights’ and ‘opportunities’ within his notion of civil rights. This critique is then developed in terms of Titmuss' concept of the ‘social division of welfare’ so as to distinguish different routes to welfare in old age. A distinction is made between a civil opportunity route to occupational pensions and a social rights route to a state earnings related pension. This distinction is then elaborated to tease out some social class and gender dimensions of citizenship and inequality in old age from a life course perspective.

In an era characterised by vast unemployment it is widely believed that certain categories of people are essentially ‘unemployable’. In most Western European countries, for instance, immigrants and other minority groups are considered to belong to the ‘hard core’ unemployed. While standard methods of the employment service have largely failed in assisting such individuals, a new method has been developed in the Netherlands referred to as the ‘tailor-made’ method. This article summarises research findings on the characteristics and suitability of this method. The findings contradict the myth of the ‘unemployable’ people.

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which education reform in Northern Ireland has developed along separate lines and to comment on the degree to which a part of the UK can move independently with respect to key social policies. The next section will examine in more detail the unique features of education in Northern Ireland, following which it will discuss the main elements of the legislation. In doing so, we will draw comparisons with the themes underpinning recent developments in Britain.