The Transformation Of Voluntary Organizations In British Welfare State

British voluntary organizations have an early origin and from then on they play an important role in providing services to children, elderly and handicapped. Before 19th century, except for the mutual help of family members and neighbors, voluntary organizations were the primary service-provider in the personal social services,while the Poor Law just fill the gap. In the first half of 20th century, voluntary organizations further developed in the framework of statutory and voluntary cooperation. However, in the postwar welfare state, they lost the original absolute independence and faced the crisis of legitimacy. As a result, voluntary organizations became relatively independent under the influence of government policy. Under the influence of government attitude and policy towards voluntary organizations, they began to adjust and transform in many aspects. At last, in British welfare state, voluntary organizations didn’t decline due to the expand of statutory services and demonstrated their potential and social values. So it is very essential to study the transformation of voluntary organizations in this period. In doing so, we can not only comprehensively understand the characteristic and importance of voluntary organizations, but also accurately realize the essence and implication of British welfare state. Considering this, the paper focus on the voluntary organizations that providing welfare services to children, elderly and handicapped in the personal social services and emphasize the transformation of voluntary organizations under the influence of government policy.The main research method in this paper are literature research method and case study method. The core viewpoint is that under the influence of government attitude and policy towards voluntary organizations, voluntary organizations transformed in four aspects:service-providing patterns, specialization, function and financial structure. Foreign stones may serve to polish domestic jade. Studying British voluntary organizations has a reference meaning of fully release the initiative energy of social organizations in China.The transformation of voluntary organizations is gradually achieved under the influence of government attitude and policy towards them. Although 1945-1951 Attlee Labour government made a policy of encouraging and supporting voluntary organizations, the attitude and policy to voluntary organizations was general and unspecific. The reason is that, to a certain degree, Attlee government maintained the ideological tradition of anti-voluntary action. During in power between 1951-1964, Conservative Party is based on the traditional positive attitudes to voluntary organizations and evolved it as time goes on. In the regime of welfare state, Conservative Party tried to integrate voluntary organizations into the welfare state and develop the mixed welfare dominated by statutory social services. So the basic policy of Conservative Party to voluntary organizations was encouraging them to supplement and extend statutory social services. After 1964, because of series of changes taken place in social political and economic field, British government worked closer to voluntary organizations and finally shaped the consistent attitude and policy towards voluntary organizations.Under the influence of government attitude and policy towards voluntary organization, voluntary organizations transformed in following four aspects. First, the service-providing pattern changed from institutional care to community care. Second, the tendency of specialization was reinforced, especially in the emergence of specialized voluntary organizations and the development of specialized services. Third, voluntary organizations went beyond the role of service-provider, developed the function of advocacy. At last, the voluntary donations-dominated financial structure was challenged, resulted in voluntary organizations dependent more on government finance.Due to immense expand of statutory welfare, voluntary organizations faced the crisis of legitimacy. In order to continue to play a part in social service, voluntary organizations transformed under the influence of government attitude and policy. The successful transformation of voluntary organizations not only ensured their indispensable importance in British welfare state but also brought some questions. The highly specialization of voluntary organizations aggravated their bureaucracy. Their increasing dependence on government finance weakened their independence and critical function.