BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOR - PROFESSIONALS AND THE POLICY PROCESS

Community care has been the aim of British health and social welfare policy for at least thirty years. Nevertheless, the policy has never been fully implemented in spite of a series of initiatives over the years to do so. Reasons for failure have varied: lack of consensus over definitions, competition for scarce resources from other more prestigious health sectors and breakdown in collaboration between the agencies and between the professionals responsible for the provision of community care services are frequently cited. This article discusses the influence of professionals on the policy process, arguing that difference in attitudes among professionals is one of the factors which inhibit collaboration. In studying the views of a sample of 233 health and social work professionals, the article finds that "professional ideologies " condition attitudes and behavior but they are not the only influences; organizational culture and force of circumstance cut across ideological differences. Complexity in the construction of professional views is a factor which policy-makers must take into account when introducing policies which rely heavily on inter-professional harmony. © 1991.