Effectiveness of Labour Reforms Flashcards
BK
BK 1: 1942 Beveridge Report suggested that it was the state’s responsibility to tackle the “Five Giants of Poverty”. This marked the abandonment of the Victorian belief in self-help and built upon the social reforms that had been begun by the Liberal government of 1906-14.
BK 2: Following the end of the Second World War, Labour, under the leadership of Clement Atlee, were elected in the 1945 election and had pledged to implement the ideas outlined by Beveridge.
Attempts to tackle ill health
KU:
05 July 1948, the NHS was created.
People were now able to access free medical care and visit GPs, dentists and opticians. No patients would be asked to pay for treatment.
Analysis: This could be said to be effective in tackling ill health because before 1948 most health care had to be paid for. Now, even the poorest could access medical services which led to a vast improvement in the nation’s health.
Developed analysis: However, the government had miscalculated the cost of these services and the budget had to increase from £134 million to £356 million. Even this was not enough and in 1951 patients were asked to pay for half of the cost of glasses and false teeth. This leads to the effectiveness being questioned as there would have been people who due to poverty could not access healthcare.
Attempts to tackle poor education
KU:
Before 1939 the quality of secondary education was variable and many children received no post primary education. The Butler Education Act 1944 was implemented and sought to address this issue. It raised the school leaving age to 15 and provided free secondary education to all.
Analysis: This could be said to be effective in tackling poor education because the poorest could access secondary education and could aspire to get better paid jobs in the future and escape poverty.
Developed analysis: However, the 11+ exam was introduced which determined who went to Grammar schools and who went to Secondary Modern schools. This lead to some questioning the effectiveness of the labour Government’s attempts to meet the need for a good education as those who passed the 11+ and went on to Grammar school (which often led to jobs in better paid professions) tended to come from middle class whereas the majority of those who went to Secondary Modern Schools were from the working class and these schools prepared their pupils to enter lower paid manual jobs.
Attempts to tackle poor housing
KU:
The government aimed to build 200,000 homes a year by 1951 and by this stage built 1 million new homes.
These were good quality houses with purpose-built kitchens, indoor toilets and a garden and council landlords provided protection from exploitation of private landlords.
Analysis: This could be said to be effective in tackling poor housing because significant numbers of people were living in high quality houses which were better than overcrowded tenements left behind.
Developed analysis: However, the post war baby boom meant that the government was still short of 750,000 homes. Arguably this shows that Labour’s attempts to tackle the giant of squalor were not wholly effective as the demand for new housing still outstripped the actual supply.
Conclusion
There were many reasons why it could be said that the Labour Government was effective in meeting the needs of the British people to a Great extent between 1945-51.
Squalor: Even though the housing issue had not been totally resolved 1 million modern, high quality homes were built and this shows that the government was effective in meeting the needs of the British people to a great extent between 1945-51 because they were no longer living in slums.
Disease: Even though charges for a small number of medical services had to be introduced it could be said that the government was effective in meeting the needs of the British people to a great extent between 1945-51 because the people had access to a wider range of medical services and consequently health improved.
Ignorance: Even though it was unsatisfactory that a two tier education system that tended to favour those with money existed it can be argued that labour was effective in meeting the needs of the British people to a great extent between 1945-51 because now all children received a secondary education which gave then the hope of escaping poverty in late life.
overall In judgement it can be argued that labour was effective to a great extent in meeting the needs of the British people as they helped to create a welfare state that made huge steps in addressing the housing, health and education inequalities that had previously existed and improved the lives of people immeasurably.
