Problematising ‘Fused Principles’ in Discourses of Preventative Social Care: Interpreting the Implementation of National Social Services Legislation in Wales, UK

Abstract Prevention is a core principle in social care legislation across the UK. However, history shows great variability in how a preventative social care agenda is conceptualised and implemented. We report findings from an independent evaluation of the implementation of the ‘2014 Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act’ incorporating a document analysis of reports and plans from Wales’ twenty-two local authorities (LAs) and eighty-eight qualitative interviews from social services strategic leaders and operational managers within four Welsh LAs. Analysis highlighted multiple interpretations of national policy, with notable overlapping agendas. In Gramscian terms, there is a constant process of negotiating prevention values and agendas, with consequences for whose interests are served. This was apparent through drives towards cost-saving, financial sustainability and reduced service demand operating alongside values-based principles rooted in well-being and mutualism. Following Kenny’s work in community development, we argue a ‘fusing’ of principles whilst espousing benefits for service users, potentially blurs the aims of the legislation, with implications for practice. This article explores the recent focus on prevention in social care legislation across the UK, but with a particular focus on Wales. Drawing from an independent evaluation of the ‘2014 Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act’, we combine two different data sources: a document analysis of reports and plans from the twenty-two Welsh LAs and interviews with Welsh regional locality strategic and operational leads. Our findings demonstrate that prevention is discussed and interpreted in multiple ways, sometimes with potentially contradictory agendas. These included ideas of cost-saving and sustainability, as well as notions of individual and collective well-being and independence. The ‘fusing’ together of these principles arguably places limits on how the prevention agenda will be interpreted and enacted in practice at a local level, highlighting both disparity and uniformity between the UK and Welsh government perspectives.