19.7 The policies of the post-war Labour government Flashcards
What kind of state did labour and create?
Welfare state from the ‘cradle to the grave’
What were labours main policies regarding children? (2)
– 1944 education act (but division age 11, secondary moderns underfunded, few technical schools)
– 1945 family allowances act (5 shillings/week 1+ child)
What were Labours main policy is for workers? (2)
– 1946 industrial injuries act (6 months sickness, disability and dependents. Tribunals set up rather than leave it all to claimant)
– National insurance act (Universal NI to all and greater cover over risks. Employees paid NI but gov paid benefits)
What was labours main policy for the destitute?
– 1948 National assistance act (Bevan ended poor law by giving central government responsibility for destitute, not locals, local authorities had to accommodate homeless)
What were labours main housing policies?
- 1946 new towns like to, towns and countryside act, Bevan promised 5 million homes in QuickTime, shortages of materials, prefabs, squatting, 1 million new homes by 1950
What year did the NHS open, and what are its main principles?
NHS opened in 1948 July those laws started in 1946 founded by Bevan
- Comprehensive medical service
- Free to all at the point of delivery
How was the NHS to be financed and how did this differ from Beveridge’s original idea?
Finance through taxation Beveridge’s original idea was through insurance
How did Bevan overcome opposition from doctors? (3)
- Bevan ‘stuffed their mouths with gold’
- Consultant private work
- GPs self-employed
Why was the NHS more expensive than anticipated? (4)
– Demand rose rather than fell
– Ageing population
– New drugs and medical technologies
– ‘Dandruff syndrome’
What medical advances occurred in the first years of the NHS? (5)
- Penicillin developed x20 stronger than it had been when first developed and was available on the NHS
- Blood transfusions
- Skin grafts after burns
- Tetanus immunisations
- Ultrasound
What were successes of the NHS? (5)
- All social groups could access health care where they could not beforehand
- Infant mortality and tuberculosis fell lots after 1948 – national health improved
- Gained public acceptance quickly and was v popular
- Doctors who had opposed quickly became the biggest supporters
- Admired by Western Countries to show that NHS could be provided in Democratic capitalist society
What were weaknesses of the NHS? (4)
- Spending on the NHS x2 1948-1951
- No unified admin system – 163 local boards and 19 regional hospital boards
- Shortage of trained staff and buildings e.g. 10k dentists for 47m people in 1948
- Hospitals were old and new buildings were slow to develop
What were limitations on other labour reforms postwar? (4)
- Welfare benefits still low and did not rise with inflation
- Claims for industrial injuries compensation hard to prove
- Limited number of houses built due to post-war BoP problems
- Tripartite school model left many with a sense of failure at 11 as technical schools didn’t have the same prestige
What conflict was there in the coalition over welfare reform?
- Left wing Labour
- Conservatives
- Churchill
There was controversy over planned welfare reforms
- Left wing labour argued proposed reforms weren’t enough; critical of 1944 Education Act for not abolishing private schools
- Conservatives claimed that the plans were too radical and expensive
- Churchill failed to give clear direction and wasn’t always encouraging. This lack of commitment and reluctance to promise the British people too much cost him too many votes in the 1945 election
Family Allowances Act
1945 - 5 shillings paid to a family after the first one
