Acton Society Trust


The Acton Society Trust was established by the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust in the 1940s "to analyse the implications of the welfare state for liberty and the individual.
It paid for assistants to front bench politicians, now known as special political advisors, who were referred to as Chocolate Soldiers, until public money was provided for the purpose in 1974. It produced many of the earliest studies of management in the United Kingdom, particularly in the National Health Service.
It submitted evidence to the Committee on the Staffing of Local Government in 1966.
Teddy Chester and Reg Revans both worked for the trust before moving to the University of Manchester, as did David Layton.
The Trust's archives are held at the London School of Economics.
It was closed down in 2000.

Publications