Social administration as a discipline emerged in Britain in the mid twentieth century and expanded alongside the growth of the
welfare state, especially in the
period after the Second World War. In universities, it was initially a
vocational subject focused on training
social workers, and also became a form of a training for people employed in
social services. Among its early proponents were
Richard Titmuss and
Brian Abel-Smith. The expansion of higher education in the 1960s allowed for the profession and the discipline to grow. In 1967, the
Social Administration Association was founded as a
professional association. It launched its own
journal,
Journal of Social Policy, in 1972. the diplomas previously awarded were gradually replaced by full degrees; and some universities abandoned vocational teaching altogether. Increasingly, to recognise the more academic focus, university departments began to incorporate
social policy, rather than administration, in their names. In 1987, the Social Administration Association changed its name to the
Social Policy Association. It was criticised by
Howard Glennerster (the professor of social administration at the
London School of Economics) for playing down the value of examining bureaucratic welfare administration, but
Gilbert Smith (the professor of social administration at the
University of Hull) defended the decision and the state of the discipline. == Aims and objectives ==