The Voluntary Sector

Voluntary provision of services for people in need has a long history. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century most health care and social provision was organised by voluntary organisations. The relationship between statutory and voluntary services varies in different periods. For most of this century, the trend was for statutory organisations to take over the tasks of the voluntary sector in many areas of provision. Indeed, the expansion of state responsibility after the Second World War led to the expectation that voluntary organisations would shrink and ultimately cease to exist. However, recent years have seen a reversal in policy whereby voluntary organisations are increasingly encouraged to take responsibility for care.