| Abstract: | SUMMARY. This paper was originally a contribution to a conference organised by the National Children's Bureau and local authority associations on childcare and the contract culture. It suggests that the current preoccupation with organisation and process is a dangerous diversion from the substantive issues facing services to children. It also claims that in the absence of coherent and integrated strategies for children an incremental drift towards a contract culture will fundamentally change the voluntary sector, dissipate the strengths of the public sector and enhance the problems of fragmentation apparent in other services. The lack of evidence to support a view that the contract culture would lead to better or cheaper services is also explored. |
