Non-Government welfare organisations

Abstract

Government has a clear constituency, a reasonably well understood sense of responsibility and accountability, and sufficient resources to undertake the jobs it chooses to perform for the community. Voluntary agencies, on the other hand, do not have any clear constituency, nor sense of accountability. They choose their constituency and range of accountability themselves and do pretty well as they please with their resources. The dichotomy that emerges is that government can appear to be able to concentrate on social planning and policy development in a forward looking way while voluntary agencies must focus on service delivery only, and in a fragmented and limited manner. That government must be intimately involved in welfare cannot be disputed at all. Government's potency as intervener and underwriter derives from the complexity of the modern economy and the social and economic consequences of an industrial society. Report includes comments by Professor Ray Brown on centrally planned changes to the federal, state and local systems of welfare.