Social Services
Historically, private organisations played a major role in the provision of social insurance and social care: from the welfare assistance delivered by religious and charitable institutions to the social insurance provided by employers and trade unions, insurance companies and friendly societies. While governments dominated the field of social insurance throughout the twentieth century, when it came to the expansion of social care from the 1960s onwards, governments in many parts of the Western world turned to community organisations for its delivery.
More recently governments have begun to engage with the private sector once again in the pursuit of greater economy and greater effectiveness in the delivery of social programmes.