Register for this webinar

• All welcome at this free event on Monday, 5 October 2026 1pm-3pm (UK)
• Book here and we will send you a link nearer the time
• Online only

Introduction

This Social Work History Network webinar takes the opportunity to consider, with the aid of hindsight, the contribution of Sir Roy Griffiths to social work and community care in England. It is many years since the publication of Griffiths’ report ‘Community Care: agenda for action’ in 1988 which was delivered to the Secretary of State for Social Services (then John Moore MP). While, in social policy terms, Sir Roy Griffiths is perhaps better known for an earlier report on NHS management in 1983, his community care report was a major underpinning of the government White Paper ‘Caring for People’ and the eventual landmark NHS and Community Care Act 1990.

Griffiths had been requested to produce a brief report – indeed it is only 28 pages. In it he declared that his report built on evidence from the Audit Commission in 1986 and the House of Commons’ Social Services Committee’s report ‘Community Care for Adults who are Mentally Ill or Mentally Handicapped’ (1985).

The reaction to ‘Community Care: agenda for action’ was mixed; not least in social work communities both at the time and subsequently. For example: shortly after publication Lister and Martin (1988) entitled their comments on the report ‘Community Care: agenda for disaster’ and expressed surprise that Griffiths’ report had received ‘a surprisingly sympathetic response from opposition leaders, trade unions, health academics, local authorities and media commentators’. Later Perry was to state: ‘Unlike Freddie Seebolm [sic], Sir Roy Griffiths appeared to have little understanding of the nature of social work. A consequence of which was that social workers were deployed on the ‘purchasing side’, assessing the need for specific services (often responding to ‘presenting problems’ rather than the ‘underlying problem’) which led to several social services departments providing ‘minding’ rather than ‘mending’ services, with an ever-increasing workload of dependent people’ (Perry 2021). Others such as Turbett (2024) have noted the market mechanisms inherent in the Griffiths’ report but pointed to his defence of local authorities as needing to occupy a key position in community care and his view that there should be far less reliance on older people’s institutions and more on community based support (Turbett 2024).

A year ago (October 2025) the transcript of a witness seminar in Manchester was published. This had explored Griffiths’ contribution to community care policy making ‘in the round’ from 1983-94 (edited by Chamberlain and Snow 2025). The transcript includes presentations on the Griffiths’ archives, on his deposited private papers, on the perspectives of senior politicians and figure from the archival sources, particularly around the later 1980s when he was further drawn into NHS debates, and a discussion with two of his children on their father’s influence on their own lives and careers.

At this webinar

This Social Work History Network webinar will focus more precisely on the intent and implications of the Griffiths’ report ‘Community Care: Agenda for Action’ for social work. We are delighted to bring key social work figures to address this topic.

‘Care Management and the Griffiths Report: Social Work Disaster or Missed Opportunity?’ Robin Means will take a critical look at what Sir Roy Griffiths said on care management (including links to the Kent studies of the pilots of case management and devolved budgets) and the initial responses following the implementation of reforms in 1993. Importantly, he will focus on the poor inheritance in terms of what went before Griffiths in terms of social work with older people.

‘The only thing that Thatcher ever gave local government?’ – the (unintended?) consequences of the Community Care Act’. In this presentation, Jon Glasby, will identify some of the consequences/unintended consequences of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, outlining the key themes that were addressed by Sir Roy Griffiths but also how these played out and what this meant for the future of social work as largely a local government activity.

‘Professional shock – addressing the implications of Griffiths’ proposals in the social work curriculum – a case study’. In this presentation, Jill Manthorpe will outline the rapid changes thought to be necessary by the acceptance of the recommendations of the Griffiths Report and the forthcoming NHS and Community Care Act 1990. Using the example of rapid research and consultation funded by the Central Council for the Education of Social Workers (CCETSW) and planning at one Social Work Department at the University of Hull, she will analyse local, regional and national reactions to the implications of the Griffiths Report.

• There will be time for questions and discussion

Register for this webinar

• All welcome at this free event on Monday, 5 October 2026 1pm-3pm (UK)
• Book here and we will send you a link nearer the time
• Online only

Join the mailing list

• To join the mailing list of the Social Work History Network please contact Stephen Martineau | Social Work History Network.