Hazel KemshallTraditionally, need has been the major mechanism for allocating resources in public services and social policy texts have addressed various state responses to social problems and the alleviation of need. However, in a period of state retrenchment and welfare restriction, rationing and targeting have become more intense. This hook explores the extent to which, as a result, risk and vulnerability have replaced need as the key principles of welfare rationing and provision. It examines the relevance of risk to social policy and welfare developments.

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Peter Housden, the Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire County Council, has been appointed as the new Director General for Schools at the Department for Education and Skills.It’s a second tier post and the one held by DfES Permanent Secretary David Normington until he was promoted to the top job in May.

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The Royal College of Physicians and the NHS Confederation are to work up radical ideas about the future of hospitals as we know them.The group will tackle the one of the biggest problems faced by the NHS – the organisation and delivery of acute emergency services in hospitals.

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