Seebohm Report
{{Short description|1960s investigation into UK social services}}
The Seebohm Report (1968) or the Seebohm Report on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services was the report of a committee reviewing the organisation and work of social services in the United Kingdom.
It recommended that separate local authority health departments such as children's' mental health, social welfare, and home help, should be condensed into a single department of social service.
Context
Twenty years after the creation of the National Health Service, local authority services were seen as chaotic and not working well. Scandals about the treatment of people with mental health issues, learning disabilities and the elderly had led to distrust of services.{{Citation |title=The restructuring of welfare services for elderly people |date=1998 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/from-poor-law-to-community-care/restructuring-of-welfare-services-for-elderly-people/0B105461B8725D23E393B94B6F8504B6 |work=From Poor Law to Community Care: The Development of Welfare Services for Elderly People 1939-1971 |pages=277–318 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Randall |access-date=2024-01-09 |edition=2 |publisher=Bristol University Press |doi=10.46692/9781847424945.007 |isbn=978-1-84742-494-5 |editor2-last=Means |editor2-first=Robin}}
Committee
On 20 December 1965, Douglas Houghton MP created the Committee on Local Authority Personal Social Services, chaired by Frederic (Lord) Seebohm.{{Cite web |title=The Seebohm report |url=https://navigator.health.org.uk/theme/seebohm-report |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Policy Navigator |language=en}}{{Cite book |title=Report of The Committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services, Cmnd. 3703 |date=July 1968}}
Report
The Seebohm Committee report recommended that social care services should be more connected with each other and other health and welfare services.{{Cite web |title=Key milestones in community health services policy |url=https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/community-services-assets/timeline |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=The King's Fund |language=en}} They emphasised care in the community and preventative care as being more financially efficient.
In March 1968, the Seebohm report proposed that services for children, the elderly and for mental welfare should be brought together into a single family services department.{{Cite web |title=NHS reform timeline |url=https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/features/nhs-reform-timeline |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Nuffield Trust |language=en}} They used the phrase "one door on which to knock".{{Cite web |title=Seebohm Report published {{!}} Social Work Centenary |url=https://sw100.ed.ac.uk/timeline/event/seebohm-report-published |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=sw100.ed.ac.uk |language=en}} This approach sought to provide services to prevent ill health and difficulties rather than solve particular needs and problems and challenged the hospital-centred model.{{Cite journal |last=Donnison |first=D. V. |date=1968 |title=Seebohm: The Report and its Implications |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43761014 |journal=Social Work (1939-1970) |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=3–8 |jstor=43761014 |issn=2398-3973}}
Impact
In a House of Lords session of 1969, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte spoke of waiting lists for residential care and spoke in support of the Seebohm Report recommendations.
In 1970, the Local Authority Social Services Act received royal assent, leading to the creation of social services departments in councils as suggested by the Seebohm report.{{Cite web |last=Harvey |first=Mark |date=2020-05-29 |title=Adult social work is fifty years young |url=https://socialworkwithadults.blog.gov.uk/2020/05/29/adult-social-work-is-fifty-years-young/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Department of Health and Social Care, Social Work with Adults |language=en}}{{cite Hansard |jurisdiction= |title=SOCIAL SERVICES: THE SEEBOHM REPORT |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1969/jan/29/social-services-the-seebohm-report |house=Lords |date=29 January 1969 |column=1168-93 |speaker= |position=}} Richard Crossman, the Labour Member of Parliament who saw this act through, was sceptical about the practicality of the report's recommendations.{{Cite web |last= |date=2005-10-20 |title=Knock it down and start again |url=https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2005/10/20/knock-it-down-and-start-again/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Community Care |language=en-GB}}
Whilst accepting the need for a single authority, the Royal Medico-Psychological Association declared themselvesd against the proposed reorganisation of mental welfare and child guidance services.{{Cite journal |date=May 1969 |title=The Royal Medico-Psychological Association's Memoranda on the Report of the Committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services (The Seebohm Report): First Memorandum |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000712500005488X/type/journal_article |journal=British Journal of Psychiatry |language=en |volume=115 |issue=522 |pages=605–611 |doi=10.1192/bjp.115.522.605 |issn=0007-1250}} Nicholas Timmins suggested that the creation of "generic social workers" based on Seebohm recommendations led to the decline of the Medical Officer of Health.{{cite conference |url=https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/iphs/researchgroups/governanceofhealth/PDF1,-,1974_.pdf |title=The 1974 NHS Reorganisation: Witness Seminar |last1= |first1= |author-link1= |last2= |first2= |author-link2= |date=9 November 2016 |publisher=University of Liverpool |book-title= |pages= |location= |conference= |id=}}