The Seebohm Report (1968) or the Seebohm Report on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services was the report of a committee reviewing the organisation and work of social services in the United Kingdom. It recommended that separate local authority health departments such as children's' mental health, social welfare, and home help, should be condensed into a single department of social service.

Context

Twenty years after the creation of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

, local authority services were seen as chaotic and not working well. Scandals about the treatment of people with mental health issues, learning disabilities and the elderly had led to distrust of services.

Committee

On 20 December 1965, Douglas Houghton MP created the Committee on Local Authority Personal Social Services, chaired by Frederic (Lord) Seebohm.

Report

The Seebohm Committee report recommended that social care services should be more connected with each other and other health and welfare services. They emphasised care in the community and preventative care as being more financially efficient. In March 1968, the Seebohm report proposed that services for children, the elderly and for mental welfare should be brought together into a single family services department. They used the phrase "one door on which to knock". This approach sought to provide services to prevent ill health and difficulties rather than solve particular needs and problems and challenged the hospital-centred model.

Impact

In a House of Lords session of 1969, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte spoke of waiting lists for residential care and spoke in support of the Seebohm Report recommendations. In 1970, the Local Authority Social Services Act received royal assent, leading to the creation of social services departments in councils as suggested by the Seebohm report.

Richard Crossman Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the ...

, the Labour Member of Parliament who saw this act through, was sceptical about the practicality of the report's recommendations. Whilst accepting the need for a single authority, the Royal Medico-Psychological Association declared themselvesd against the proposed reorganisation of mental welfare and child guidance services. Nicholas Timmins suggested that the creation of "generic social workers" based on Seebohm recommendations led to the decline of the

Medical Officer of Health A medical officer of health, also known as a medical health officer, chief health officer, chief public health officer or district medical officer, is the title commonly used for the senior government official of a health department, usually at a m ...

References

{{Reflist 1968 documents 1965 in the United Kingdom 1968 in the United Kingdom Health care reports of the United Kingdom government Social work Welfare state