Abstract
In all public services in which administrative responsibility is shared between a central authority and locally based authorities there is a need to strike a balance between the powers and functions of the centre and those of the periphery. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the nature of the balance that was struck between the Ministry of Health (and later DHSS) and regional hospital boards. The chapter proceeds from a general overview of central department/regional board relationships, through an examination of the means of central control, making use of material from the Leeds Region, to an analysis of the relationship which draws on the literature on central government/local government relations.
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Notes and References
J. E. Powell, A New Look at Medicine and Politics (London: Pitman, 1966), p. 56.
Richard Crossman, A Politician’s View of Health Service Planning (University of Glasgow, 1972) p. 10.
See the criticisms of the Acton Society Trust in Creative Leadership in a State Service (1959).
D. Owen, In Sickness and In Health (London: Quartet, 1976) p. 8.
K. Judge, Rationing Social Services (London: Heinemann, 1978) Chapter 4, contains a useful discussion of central-local relations in the personal social services.
Estimates Committee (Sub-Committee B), Hospital Building in Great Britain, Part of Minutes of Evidence, 8 December 1969, Session 1969/1970, HC 59-i.
R. Stewart and J. Sleeman, ‘Continuously under review’, Occasional Papers on Social Administration, no. 20 (London: Bell, 1967).
R. G. S. Brown, Reorganising the National Health Service (Oxford: Blackwell and Robertson, 1979) p. 11.
J. A. G. Griffith, Central Departments and Local Authorities (London: Allen and Unwin, 1966) pp. 515–23.
P. Self, Administrative Theories and Politics (London: Allen and Unwin, 1972) p. 98.
R. Klein, ‘Policy problems and policy perceptions in the National Health Service’, Policy and Politics, vol. 2[3], (1974) pp. 219–36;
R. Klein, ‘Policy making in the National Health Service’ Political Studies, Vol. xxii [1] (1974) pp. 1–14.
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© 1981 Christopher Ham
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Ham, C. (1981). Centre-periphery Relationships. In: Policy-making in the National Health Service. Studies in Social Policy. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05525-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05525-8_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-05527-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-05525-8
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