It is probably now true to say that the previous concentration in social policy analysis upon state provision of welfare service has begun to give way in recent years to a focus on the plurality of forms of welfare provision and, as a result of this, more recognition has been given to the other sectors of welfare provision. However, despite this broadening concern, it remains the case that debate about the different sectors of welfare still pays relatively little attention to what is, in volume terms at least, the major provider of social services — the informal sector. Although, as Means and Smith (1994, p. 204) comment, ‘It is now recognised that, in all welfare regimes, the informal sector has played the dominant, albeit often invisible, role’.