The History and Early Development of CDP

This chapter focuses on the early development of CDP - but first, it is important to place this development in a wider context. CDP did not emerge in a vacuum, but in a social, political and economic situation which had. already given rise to other government attempts to attain similar goals - positive discrimination through Educational Priority Areas and the Urban Programme - greater coordination of welfare services through the post-Seebohm developments, or more participation following the Skeffington Report. Since CDP was launched, other Departments have continued to devise similar experiments, for example the Department of Environment’s Six Towns study, or the Department of Employment’s ’model offices’ scheme.