Social Policy Report

This report examines the historical development of social policy in the UK, focusing on key periods and legislation. It begins with an analysis of the 1834 Poor Law Act, highlighting its significance in shaping social welfare approaches. The report then traces the progress of social policy between 1900 and 1914, detailing important acts such as the Midwives Act, Education (Provisions of Meals) Act, and the Children Act. A comprehensive evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the welfare state established in the 1940s follows, considering both its benefits (e.g., redistribution of wealth, improved healthcare) and drawbacks (e.g., high cost, potential for misuse). Finally, the report delves into the key features of New Labour's social policy, emphasizing its focus on greater equality and improvements in education and healthcare. The report concludes by summarizing the significant milestones and transformations in UK social policy throughout the examined periods.

Social Policy
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Table of Contents
TASK 1 WHY IS THE 1834 POOR LAW IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL
POLICY?.........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2 HOW DID SOCIAL POLICY PROGRESS BETWEEN 1900 AND 1914?...................3
TASK 3 WHAT WERE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE WELFARE
STATE ESTABLISHED IN THE 1940'S?.....................................................................................4
TASK 4 WHAT WERE THE KEY FEATURES OF NEW LABOUR SOCIAL POLICY? ........5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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TASK 1 WHY IS THE 1834 POOR LAW IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY
OF SOCIAL POLICY?
The 1834 Poor Law Act can be stated as the crucial act in the history of social policy that
was designed in order to minimize the cost of looking after the poor people as it stopped money
going to poor people except in certain cases. Here, it is essential to understand the principle of
'less eligibility' that helps in connected with the relief of the able-bodied. However, it is essential
to identify remedies first in order to overcome evils. It is significant to improve the commission
so that such reform need to be modified in such a way in order to deter people from making
unnecessary demands upon public funds. Thus, government needs to interfere in between so that
they can ensure to cure the problem (Alcock, 2014).
Further, the 1834 Poor Law was welcomed by people as they believed that it will help in
reducing the cost of looking after the needs of poor people, reduce the percentage of poor people
begging on the streets and motivate them to support themselves in order to overcome poverty.
Through the introduction of such reform it helps poor people by providing them housing
facilities, clothing and food (Blakemore and Warwick-Booth, 2013). While, the children who
enter into workhouses receive basic schooling. In regard to this poor man living in such
workhouses are required to work for several hours each day. Passing such law helps social policy
as it helps in overcoming the poverty. Further, government is required to introduce provisions in
such law so that limitations can be avoided effectively.
TASK 2 HOW DID SOCIAL POLICY PROGRESS BETWEEN 1900 AND
1914?
In such era of British empire it states that wide range of progress attained in different
sectors and provide better opportunities for people in order to raise their standard and efficiency.
However, it also compounded in order to provide suggestions that the health of population was
being undermined through continuing urbanization and high proportion of increasing army
recruitment who were earlier rejected on the ground of physical fitness. Further, in such era
Women's movement was also started that helps in pressuring government to introduce family
and child welfare. However, the years before World War I have been remarked series of growth
in social policy reforms within UK many of which taken effective initiatives to attain effective
growth and development (Wilkins, 2013).
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In order to attain social policy progress between 1900 and 1914 there were several acts
introduced such as 1902 Midwives Act that helps in carrying out informal practicing of
midwives by providing them license so that their services can be protected as there was no
alternative. Further, another reform introduced was 1906 Education (Provisions of Meals) Act
that helps in empowering the local authorities in order to deliver free school meals for poor
children so that they can gain required nutritional value. Another reform is 1907 Education
(Administrative Provisions) Act that was introduced by government in regard to introduce
medical inspection of school children so that better health and care facilities can be provided to
young children’s (Geyer, 2013). Moreover, 1908 Children Act was also introduced in this era as
it helps in protecting the child and making parents legally responsible for child neglect and
developing a less punitive approach to delinquency.
TASK 3 WHAT WERE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE
WELFARE STATE ESTABLISHED IN THE 1940'S?
Welfare state can be considered as the concept that helps in playing key role in protection
and promotion of the economic and social well being of citizens. It is based upon the principles
of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth and public responsibility for those
people to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life. Welfare state helps in
providing benefits in regard to transfer of funds from the state to the services provided i.e. health
care and education etc. Another benefit is redistributionist taxation that helps in usually
including larger income tax for people with higher incomes called as progressive tax. Thus, it
benefits by reducing the income gap between the rich and poor people. Furthermore, another
benefit of welfare state is that to attend the need of poor people and provide them medical
facilities as well as basic essential of food, water and clothing (6 KEY PROS AND CONS OF
WELFARE, 2015).
Furthermore, another disadvantage of welfare state is the cost to the exchequer. Here, the
state government of the federal government, taxpayers money is used in order to fund the
welfare. Another disadvantage is that sometimes it has been assessed that welfare state is
misused. There are wide range of people misusing welfare and thus it raises the chance of scams
and fraudulent rackets in the economy. Moreover, welfare is that certain people may get
comfortable by providing benefits and may not want to work or better their condition on their
own (Borzaga and Bodini, 2014).
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TASK 4 WHAT WERE THE KEY FEATURES OF NEW LABOUR
SOCIAL POLICY?
New labour social policy provides wide range of features in order to provide more
equality within society than when labour was elected. However, UK has become a more equal
society after 10 years of Labour government. Thus, it helps in distributing equal income
opportunities to every people and narrow down the differences. With the help of this difference
has been narrowed down among families and thus they live in a equal society (Daly, 2012).
Further, it also helps in increasing the value of services delivered through education and health
care spending and thus equalizing it in order to attain desired results.
Furthermore, there were consistent development in the policy as it moved in right
direction. It includes clearly redistributive tax and benefit changes through launching different
programs in schools, employment etc. so that best results can be attained. New labour social
policy helps in developing the living standards of people and thus it currently decreases the
recession and public finances so that desired actions can be attained. Social security was the
system that helps in providing security and safety to individuals so that unemployed persons can
enter into the employed workforce (Spodek and Saracho, 2014).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alcock, P., 2014. Social policy in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan.
Blakemore, K. and Warwick-Booth, L., 2013. Social Policy: An Introduction: An Introduction.
McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Borzaga, C. and Bodini, R., 2014. What to make of social innovation? Towards a framework for
policy development. Social Policy and Society. 13(03). pp.411-421.
Daly, M., 2012. Paradigms in EU social policy: a critical account of Europe 2020. Transfer:
European Review of Labour and Research. 18(3). pp.273-284.
Geyer, R. R., 2013. Exploring European social policy. John Wiley & Sons.
Spodek, B. and Saracho, O. N., 2014. Handbook of research on the education of young children.
Routledge.
Wilkins, L. T., 2013. Social deviance: Social policy, action and research (Vol. 9). Routledge.
Online
6 KEY PROS AND CONS OF WELFARE, 2015. [ONLINE]. Available through:
<http://nlcatp.org/6-key-pros-and-cons-of-welfare/>. [Accessed on 10 March 2016].
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