Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:56:24.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Need Revisited*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Susan Clayton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Considerable debate has taken place as to the nature of social need and ways in which it can best be identified in individual people, but little attention has focussed on the way assessments of need are used in the process of policy formation. The article takes Jonathan Bradshaw's commonly quoted taxonomy of social need and assesses its strengths and weaknesses for use in a practical policy making setting, that of assessment of need for sheltered housing for elderly people by a district housing authority. Some fundamental problems associated with Bradshaw's approach are then discussed, together with those arising from use of a term such as need in the process of policy formation.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 215 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrams, M. (1978), Beyond three score and ten: a first report on a survey of the elderly, Age Concern, Mitcham, Surrey.Google Scholar
Acheson, R. M. (1978), ‘The definition and identification of need for health care’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 32:1, 10–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anchor Housing Association (1977), Care for the Elderly in Sheltered Housing. A report of the Anchor Extra Care Study Group, Oxford.Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M. (1957), Intention, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bebbington, A. C. and Davies, B. (1980), ‘Territorial need indicators: a new approach’, Journal of Social Policy, Part I, 9:2, 145–168, Part II, 9:4, 433–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackham, A. J. (1976), ‘The concept of need in social policy’, Social Services Quarterly, 49:4, 122–126.Google Scholar
Borland, J. (1973), ‘Social need – the process of definition and measurement’ in Olsen, R. (ed.) Management in the Social Services – The Team Leader's Task, Department of Social Theory and Institutions, University College of North Wales, Bangor.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J. (1972), ‘The taxonomy of social need’, in McLachlan, G. (ed.), Problems and Progress in Medical Care, Oxford University Press, Oxford, also published in New Society, 1972, 19:496, 640–2, and in abridged from as ‘The concept of social need’ in M. Fitzgerald, P. Halmos, J. Muncie and D. Zeldin (eds), Welfare in Action, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1977.Google Scholar
Butler, A and Oldman, C. (1979), ‘The development of sheltered housing for the elderly’, Housing, 15:7, 22–23.Google Scholar
Butler, A. and Oldman, C. (1980), ‘The objectives of sheltered housing, implications for future provision’, Housing Review, 29:2, 48–50.Google Scholar
Butler, A., Oldman, C. and Wright, R. (1979), Sheltered Housing for the Elderly: A Critical Review, Department of Social Policy and Administration Research Monograph, University of Leeds.Google Scholar
Cantle, E. F. (1975), ‘The underestimation of housing needs, a critique of new research methods’, Housing Monthly, 11:12, 5–9.Google Scholar
Clayton, S. (1981), ‘Sheltered housing, an intensive or extensive service?’ in Health and Welfare Services for the Elderly, Occasional Paper in Social Administration No 1, Department of Social Administration, Lancaster University.Google Scholar
Clayton, S. (1978), Sheltered Housing – A Service for the Elderly, MA Dissertation, Durham University.Google Scholar
Clayton, S. and Groves, D. (1982), Welfare Provision and Elderly People. Costs, benefits and exemptions in Working with the Elderly. Occasional Paper in Health and Welfare, No. 3, Department of Social Administration, Lancaster University.Google Scholar
Culyer, A. J., Lavers, R. J. and Williams, A. (1972), ‘Health Indicators’ in Shonfield, A. and Shaw, A., Social Indicators and Social Policy, Heinemann, London.Google Scholar
Culyer, A. J. (1976), Need and the National Health Service, Economics and Social Choice, Martin Robertson, London.Google Scholar
Davies, B. (1977), ‘Needs and outputs’ in Heisler, H. (ed.) Foundations of Social Administration, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Davies, B. (1968), Social Needs and Resources in Local Services: A study of variations in standards of provision of Personal Social Services between Local Authority Areas, Michael Joseph, London.Google Scholar
Department of the Environment (1978), Housing Appraisal Kit, Housing Development Directorate, London.Google Scholar
Durham County Council (1974), Durham County Housing Survey, Durham.Google Scholar
Forder, A. (1974), Concepts in Social Administration, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Fruin, D. J. (1974), ‘Analysis of need’ in Brown, M. J. (ed.) Social Issues and the Social Services, Charles Knight, London.Google Scholar
George, V. and Wilding, P. (1976), Ideology and Social Welfare, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Godfree, S. (1978), ‘Housing needs, housing planning and HIP's, Housing Review, 27:2, 40–42.Google Scholar
Gruer, R. (1975), The Needs of the Elderly in the Scottish Borders, Scottish Health Services Studies, No 33, Scottish Home and Health Department, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Heller, A. (1977), The Theory of Need in Marx, Allison and Busby, London.Google Scholar
Henderson, R. (1979), ‘What housing need?’, Housing Review, 28:5, 137–140.Google Scholar
Housing Services Advisory Group (1977), The Assessment of Housing Requirements, Department of the Environment, London.Google Scholar
Illich, I. (1976), Limits to Medicine, Medical Nemesis. The Expropriation of Health, Boyars, London.Google Scholar
Jones, K., Brown, J. and Bradshaw, J. (1978), Issues in Social Policy, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Klein, R. (1977), ‘The conflict between professionals, consumers and bureaucrats’. Journal of the Irish College of Physicians and Surgeons, 6:3, 88–91.Google Scholar
London Borough of Greenwich (1972), Old Peoples Homes and Sheltered Housing in Greenwich, London.Google Scholar
Mcintosh, M. (1981), ‘Household incomes and the politics of needs, problems for the study of poverty and inequality’, Paper presented at the British Sociological Association conference 6–9 04, Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. (1973), ‘The philosophy and history of need’ in Canvin, R. W. and Pearson, N. G. (eds), Needs of the Elderly, University of Exeter.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. H. (1943), ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, 50, 370–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1963), Social Theory and Social Structures, Free Press of Glenco, New York.Google Scholar
Miller, D. (1976), Social Justice, Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Miller, H. (1966), quoted in Becker, H. S., Social Problems: A Modern Approach, Wiley, Surrey, p. 472.Google Scholar
Mishra, R. (1977), Society and Social Policy, Theoretical Perspectives on Welfare, Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nevitt, D. A. (1977), ‘Demand and need’ in Heisler, H. (ed.) Foundations of Social Administration, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Niner, P. (1976), A review of Approaches to Estimating Housing Needs, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Birmingham University.Google Scholar
Plant, R., Lesser, H. and Taylor-Gooby, P. (1980), Political Philosophy and Social Welfare, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Scottish Development Department, (1976), Local Housing Needs and Strategies, a case study of the Dundee Sub-Region, HMSO, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Scottish Development Department, (1977), Scottish Housing Handbook, Assessing Housing Needs, a Manual of Guidance, HMSO, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Smith, G. (1979), Social Need: Policy, Practice and Research, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Smith, G. and Harris, R. (1972), ‘Ideologies of need and the organisation of social work departments’, British Journal of Social Work, 2:1, 27–45.Google Scholar
Soper, K. (1981), On human needs: open and closed theories in a Marxist Perspective, Harvester Press, Sussex.Google Scholar
Springborg, P. (1981), The problem of human needs and the critique of civilisation, George Allen & Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Stewart, G. (1980), Personal Social Services Bibliography, (2nd Edition), Library Association, London.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. (1980), A Housing Bibliography, (3rd Edition), Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Stouffer, S. A. (1949), The American Soldier, Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. and Dale, J. (1981), Social Theory and Social Welfare, Edward Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. (1958), Essays on the Welfare State, George Allen & Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1964), The Last Refuge, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. and Wedderburn, D. (1965), The Aged in the Welfare State, Occasional Papers in Social Administration, Paper No 14, Bell, London.Google Scholar
Walton, R. (1969), ‘Need: a central concept’, Social Service Quarterly, 43:1, 12–17.Google Scholar
Watson, C. J. (1976), Estimating Local Housing Need, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Birmingham University.Google Scholar
Weale, A. (1978), Equality and Social Policy, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Weiss, C. H. (1973), Evaluation Research – Methods of Assessing Program Effectiveness, Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.Google Scholar
Williams, A. (1974), ‘Need as a demand concept’ in Culyer, A. J. (ed.) Economic Policies and Social Goals, Martin Robertson, London.Google Scholar
Winkler, J. T. (1981), ‘The political economy of administrative discretion’ in Adler, M. and Asquith, S. (eds), Discretion and Welfare, Heinemann Educational, London.Google Scholar