Recent community care changes have raised fundamental issues about the changing role of the public, voluntary and informal sectors in the provision of social care to frail elderly people. They have also raised issues about the health and social care interface, how to ration services and the respective roles of residential care and care at home. The purpose of this book is to set these debates in the context of the historical growth of welfare services from the outbreak of the Second World War through to the establishment of social services departments in April 1971. Based upon extensive research on primary services such as the Public Records Office and interviews with key actors, separate chapters look at the impact of the Second World War; the 1948 National Assistance Act; issues in residential care; issues in domiciliary care; and the creation of social services departments.