Introduction to Social Policy

The essay is prepared on the ‘Beveridge Report’ and includes the major five giants and its influence on the British people after the war. Various figures are also provided to attain the better knowledge about these giants. In the second half of the assignment, various ideologies and welfare approaches are discussed that were taken by Tony Blair to overcome the problem of five giant prevailing in the country.

Running head: Introduction to Social policy
Introduction to Social Policy

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The essay is prepared on the ‘Beveridge Report’. Sir William Beveridge presented this report in
the year 1942. It includes the brief knowledge about the development of welfare state to retain
social safety and Domestic health in United Kingdome at the end of World War 2 (BBC, 2014).
Further, the essay includes the major five giants and its influence on the British people after the
war. Various figures are also provided to attain the better knowledge about these giants. In the
second half of the assignment, various ideologies and welfare approaches are discussed that were
taken by Tony Blair to overcome the problem of five giant prevailing in the country.
William Beveridge laid the foundation of Welfare state in 1942 (Archieves, 2019). It laid a great
emphasis on Conservative Party as well as on Labour Party because it deals with the
development of reforms and measures for the well-being of the British citizen. Both the parties
want to initiate welfare state because it would bring them great prosperity. Further, it would help
them to establish their government post Worlds War 2. The labour party led by ‘Clement Atlee’
has announced modifications for the establishment of Welfare state (sequence of procedures).
These reforms were introduced to overcome the Five Giants. The labour party has made the use
of reforms to overcome the problem of poor health. It has also framed reforms to fulfill the need.
This reform includes several acts like National Insurance Act 1946. Reforms to solve the
problem of squalor, idleness and poor real income were also developed (CSI, 2019).
In UK, Social Policy was initiated for the development of welfare state. It is the idea of
providing health, housing and educational facilities with a welfare purpose. Beveridge report was
developed to achieve welfare state post World War 2 (Spicker, 2019). In 1942, The Beveridge
report has acknowledged the ‘Five giants in the post war reconstruction’. These major problems
were resisting the people of United Kingdom to achieve the quality life. These are Want,
Diseases, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness (Timmins, 2017).
The first giant was Want. It states the need for satisfactory income to all the sections of the
society. Since 1942, the GDP rate was stable that resulted in enhancing the real income of the
population of the country (CSI, 2019). In the year 1946 ‘National Insurance Act’ and ‘Industrial
injuries Act’ was developed. Further, in 1948 ‘National Assistance Act’ was implemented. These
acts had benefitted in providing monetary assistance to the workers and pensions to the elders.
Gradually, a slow progress has been marked resulting in improvement in fulfillment the need of
the people.

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The next giant was Diseases it means the necessity for the healthcare. In the year 1948, ‘National
Health Service Act’ was implemented to address this problem (BBC, 2019). It helped the
population to get a free access to the Hospitals. After its implementation, there was a key
improvement in the diseases. The rate of cardio vascular infections and lung cancer has reduced
largely. Such improvement in these health areas has resulted in the increment of life expectancy
rate at birth (CSI, 2019).
The next giant was Ignorance, it is a need to achieve an educational opportunity. It is one of the
factors that had resisted the social progress in UK. Between the years, 2006-2012 there was
enhancement in the skill of the young generation (CSI, 2019). In the year 1947, ‘Education Act
1944’ was implemented to tackle this giant. It provided free education until the 14 age group in
UK (BBC, 2019).
Squalor is the need for having sufficient housing. Earlier there was ban on British public housing
built by its local authority resulted in scarcity of houses (Armstrong, 2017). To tackle this giant
‘New Town Act 1946’ and ‘Housing Act 1949’ was implemented. Under the New town Act, 12
new cities were planned to lessen overcrowding (BBC, 2019). Since 1951, there was a great
progress in ‘Number of rooms per person’. This result has attained because of reduction in the
family size and increased in housing facility (CSI, 2019).
According to the above report, the fifth giant was Idleness. It is the need for attaining
employment. There was not a proper improvement in this giant because of increasing rate of
unemployment. In relation to psychological well-being, unemployed group of people was the
most affected with the giant affects. In order to tackle this giant, the labour government
nationalized the steel, iron, gas, coal industries to decrease unemployment rate. This had helped
in reducing the unemployment rate (BBC, 2019)
In order to avail Social democracy after World war second, Welfare state was introduced to
control the social problems regarding health, finance and social needs (Spicker, 2019). It was
established with an aim of providing identical opportunities to the population that lack the
provision of good life in UK. The Labour party nationalized the national and local transport, coal
industry, oil industry, iron and steel industry. British coalmines were also marked under the
control of National Coal Board in 1945. The coalmine industry performed an unsatisfactory

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result in respect of productivity. The output was not rising with the increase in the number of
workers. There has been increase in the old age workers and reduction in the surface workers.
Further, there was increase in accidents, failure and repairs in the coal industry. These drawbacks
resulted in shortage of coal to meet the demand in Britain (Murphy, 2019). Further, in the year
1946 the government nationalized the privately owned Banks of England. Such step was taken
by the Labour government to fix interest rate to create a stable economy in UK (England, 2019).
Tony Blair was a leader of Labour Party and the prime minister of United Kingdom from 1997 to
2007 (Gallagher, 2019). Despite sharing his ideologies, he had also adopted them to solve the
major giants. Blair believes in developing a vision for the society and implementing it. Similarly,
to tackle the squalor giant he developed a New Town Act 1946. In this act, he created a vision of
developing new cities in UK to solve the problem of inadequate housing post World War 2.
Blair government was clear about its willingness to take action towards its competitors. This
forms an important part in his values. He believes in setting high standards in education to attain
high education level in the UK. Similarly, Tony Blair has implemented ‘Education Act’ to
tackle the problem of idleness. Further, it will assist in developing skilled population.
He had great record in investing in public services also. In order to overcome the five giants, he
had made planned and implemented various acts to solve the post-world war 2 problems. He had
adopted the similar ideology to solve the problem of idleness. He had led the nationalization of
major industries like coal, iron and steel. This decision had benefitted the public as number of
employment opportunities enhanced for the UK population.
He is the supporter of strong law enforcement. He not only plan’s the acts but also maintain its
proper implementation to serve the population. Further, Neoliberism forms an unambiguous part
in his believes. He believes in competition and personal success. He attains great trust in society
and its power towards building a structured society in UK. He laid great emphasis on democracy
superiority as well (Internet, 2019).
As a leader of labour party and the Prime Minister of UK, he had led various welfare approaches.
He has implemented various acts to overcome the problem of want. He executed National
Insurance Act. This act has assisted in providing financial assistance to the unemployed workers.
They were provided with 26 to 42 shillings for fulfill their basic requirement. The elderly people

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were also the part of his welfare policies as they were given pensions. He had also provided
financial support in respect of funeral preparations. Under this act, average living circumstances
for the employed people were also inbuilt. He had also planned ‘Industrial Injuries Act’ in 1946.
This act also aims at providing monetary relief to the injured workers as well as to the long term
absent workers by providing government compensation. National Assistance Act was also the
part of his welfare contribution (BBC, 2019).
Reforms like ‘National Health Service Act’ were also the part of Tony Blair welfare approach
towards the nation. His government had established National Health Service in the year 1948.
This provided a great prosperity in the country as many people had poor health after the World
War 2. Under this act, UK population was provided with the opportunity of getting free access to
the dentists, physicians and clinics. Population of people seeking benefits from this act rises from
7 million per month to 13.5 million per month by 1948. To provide health facility to its
population, his government was spending millions (BBC, 2019).
The essay report is summarized on Social policies in United Kingdom post world war 2. Labour
government has laid the foundation of many social policies and reforms to overcome the social
problems. The Beveridge report has acknowledged the five giants post World War 2. In order to
tackle these problems various reforms and its effectiveness are also covered. It focuses on the
ideologies of Tony Blair with relation to the giants. Further, his welfare approach in relation to
the giants is also determined. Hence, it is concluded that Beveridge report has been successful to
some extent only in tackling the five giants.
References

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Archieves, N., 2019. The Welfare State. [Online] Available at:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/welfare.htm
[Accessed 26 June 2019].
Armstrong, S., 2017. Want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness: are Beveridge’s five evils
back? [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/10/beveridge-five-
evils-welfare-state [Accessed June 2019].
BBC, 2014. WW2 People's War. [Online] Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1143578.shtml
[Accessed 25 June 2019].
BBC, 2019. Labour Reforms - The Welfare State 1945-1951. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zt4hvcw/revision/6 [Accessed 25 June 2019].
CSI, 2019. Beveridge five's giant. [Online] Available at:
http://csi.nuff.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CSI_12_The_Five_Giantsv2.pdf [Accessed
26 June 2019].
England, B.O., 2019. The history of bank of England. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/history [Accessed 26 June 2019].
Gallagher, T., 2019. Tony Blair. [Online] Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tony-Blair [Accessed 26 June 2019].
Internet, W., 2019. Ideology and ethics of Tony Blair. [Online] Available at:
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/blair.html [Accessed 26 June 2019].
Murphy, M.E., 2019. Nationalization of British Industry. The Canadian Journal of Economics
and Political Science, 18, pp.146-62.
Spicker, 2019. An introduction to Socal Policy. [Online] Available at:
http://www.spicker.uk/social-policy/ [Accessed 26 June 2019].
Timmins, N., 2017. The Five Giants [New Edition]: A Biography of the Welfare State.
HarperCollins UK.

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