Social Welfare Planning and the New Federalism: The Allied Services Act

Waste, duplication, and coordination are among the cornerstone concepts upon which the social policy of the New Federalism is being developed. The proposed Allied Services Act captures and reflects most elements of the Administration's emerging social policy. An analysis of the legislation, which is significant in that it begins to define a public responsibility for planning social welfare services, indicates several issues of concern to the planner. The legislation raises questions such as: the criteria for definition of planning area boundaries; the relationship between the quality of planning and the limits of present planning resources; the quality and availability of standards to assess services; the complex formulae by which federal, state, and local governments allocate and support services; the role of formal interest groups in the planning process; the vitality of existing private (voluntary) health and welfare planning agencies; and finally the substance of planning education. As it now stands, the legislation has more potential for improving the management of services in a narrow sense of the concept than for any significant planning for social welfare services on a systemwide basis.