Leverhulme Foundation project: Brent Social Services Pilot Project

The Brent Social Services Pilot Project was a third level of the Leverhulme Foundation Project: a local, community study which sought to understand the ways in which decisions on social policy were made at the local level. Elliot Stern, Patrick Quinn, Sheila Scott, and Catherine Hakim-Goldborough constituted the research team representing the Tavistock Institute.

The study was conducted at both officer and member level of the Local Authority, and sought to investigate two principal questions: 1. How families and individuals made their need known to those able to provide resources. 2. How authorities recognised and responded to expressions of need. Areas 1, 3 and 5 of the local community were decided on for more detailed research in order to provide a good contrast in terms of mobility, class and proximity to the centre, and research was primarily undertaken through observation, shadowing, attendance at meetings, and interviews.