Example health and social care dissertation topic 4:

The death of volunteerism within social care: An unexpected impact of the CRB?

Taking a revisionist approach, this dissertation looks at a peripheral service within social care: that of the provision by the voluntary sector of Meals on Wheels. Within Somerset, there has been a marked decline in the number of volunteers coming forward to assist with this lifeline to the elderly with the result that the service is desperately short of delivery drivers. This dissertation seeks, through the conducting of fieldwork to test the hypothesis that the decline in volunteers is a consequence of people not being prepared to be ‘vetted by the central state’ for an act of kindness and seeks, thereafter, to ask, what can be done within the present legislative framework to reverse the trend of declining volunteerism.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Eisch-Angus, K. (2011). ‘”You can’t argue with security.” The communication and practice of everyday safeguarding in the society of security’. Behemoth, vol. 4(2), pp. 83-106.
• Jamison, I.B. (2003). ‘Turnover and retention among volunteers in human service agencies’. Review of Public Personnel Administration, vol. 23(2), pp. 114-132.
• O’Dwyer, C. and Timonen, V. (2009). ‘Doomed to extinction? The nature and future of volunteering for meals-on-wheels services’. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, vol. 20(1), pp. 35-49.