Families and Households - Social Policy

Question 1

What is social policy?

Answer 1

Social policy is an attempt by the Government to deal with a social problem (e.g. homelessness/ unemployment) or to ensure that social needs (e.g. benefits/happy family life) are met.

Family social policy includes:
Health, Education, Housing, Protection of children, Childcare etc.

Two forms of policy:

• Policy that funds and supports the family
• Policy that helps parents manage time between family life and working life

Question 2

What do Functionalists think about social policy?

Answer 2

Creates a Stable family
Policy should benefit the whole society
‘March of progress’ - policy helps families fulfil functions

Question 3

Functionalist Favoured Policies

Answer 3

Fletcher (1966) introduction of health, education and housing policies have supported functions of the family more effectively.
The following policies support the functionalist views of the family:
1. Compulsory schooling (i.e. all children must attend school from 4-17yrs)
2. Free healthcare (i.e. the NHS)
3. Right to Buy (i.e. tenants of council houses can purchase at a discount)
4. Anti Social Behaviour Act 2014 (i.e. increased powers to tackle ASB in communities)

Evaluation: Functionalists assume all members benefit equally (feminists would argue women don’t)
Assumes there is a ‘march of progress’ (Marxists argue policies can turn clock back by cutting benefits)

Question 4

What do Marxists think about social policy?

Answer 4

• Social policy serves the interests of capitalism
• Policy makes it easy/hard for women depending on workforce requirements
• Policies promote obedience/respect

Question 5

What do the New Right think about social policy?

Answer 5

• Disapprove of state intervention in private matters
• Benefits for ‘deviant’ families too generous
• Benefits create ‘culture of dependency’

Question 6

What is the Feminist view of social policy?

Answer 6

• Policy promotes particular structures
• Against policies that uphold patriarchy
• Support policies which support women

Question 7

Feminist Favoured Policies

Answer 7

Feminism sees society as patriarchal; the state maintains women’s subordinate position. Land (1978) - policy assume a norm of ‘ideal nuclear family’ which affects the type of policy which is decided = becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Social policy discourages diversity.
Policies that support feminist views:
1. Tax and benefits policy which favour married couples or ones where man earns more
2. Childcare policy
3. Care for sick and elderly; it is expected that much of this is done by the family
4. Maternity pay (Leonard 1978 - whilst it appears supportive all it does is encourage women to care for baby)

Evaluation: What about Equal Pay Act/Sex Discrimination Act 1975? Government sets up refuges for women, supports lesbian marriage and allows adoption for single sex couples.
Inter-marital rape made a crime (1991).

Question 8

Donzelot Views on Social Policy (1977)

Answer 8

Donzelot believes that social policy allows for policing of the family:

• Families are monitored and surveilled by professional bodies (education, health care etc) and intervene to ‘fix’ problems. Families are not equally targeted; lower classes are perceived as problematic and in need of improvement.
• Conflict theory - social policy controls families and legitimates inequality (the haves and the have nots)
• CF - Foucault - ‘families are policed by state’ - what was once ‘behind closed doors’ and private is now the remit of state agency intervention

Question 9

Examples of social policy

Answer 9

• The 1969 Divorce Act and 1984 Divorce Act
• The Adoption Act 2002 (came in in 2005)
• The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 and Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013
• Maternity and Paternity Policy - The Employment Protection Act of 1975 and the ‘Paternity Act’ (2010)
• The Child Benefits Acts (1975) and significant changes (1998 and 2013)
• Changes to Income Support for Lone Parents since 2014

Question 10

Explanation of policy - The Civil partnerships Act 2004 and the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013

Answer 10

• Aim - To legalise same-sex partnerships and give them the same rights and responsibilities of those in a civil marriage, including a legal process of dissolution, followed by a 2013 Act that allowed same-sex couples to get married on the same basis as heterosexual couples
• They were entitled to the same property rights, exemptions on inheritance tax, social security and pension benefits as married couples and had the same ability to gain parental responsibility for a parent’s child along with reasonable maintenance, tenancy rights, insurance and next of kin rights in medical care
  Impact on family - allows the family dynamic to legally change, erasing the nuclear family as the only legal family option in England and Wales; this affects typical conjugal roles and stigma around the raising of children being impacted by the a lack of gender representation; it diversifies childcare and family
• Feminists (particularly intersectional feminists and radical feminists) - positive policy as it allows for dismantling of patriarchal institutions and paving the way for a society without the need for men in the family
• Functionalists and New Right - slightly negative as it can create a lack of consensus for religious believers and disrupts the traditional, best, nuclear family (Redwood - not natural)
• Marxists - little opinion on it as it has no impact on the class system, but appreciates the increase in equality
• Postmodernists - positive as it promotes a breakdown in metanarratives that prevent diversity

Question 11

Explanation of social policy - Working families tax credit 2003

Answer 11

• Aimed to encourage more families – especially women – to get back into work as well as bring up young children. The idea was that people would get tax relief against childcare costs incurred by going to work – thus making it worthwhile for families on low wages to consider going back to work
• A policy which provides families where both partners are in paid employment but on low pay, with tax relief on money paid for childcare
• Support families with children, reduce child poverty and make work pay for those low on incomes
  Impact on family - makes a more supported family, reducing inequality within the institution of family and providing more of an opportunity to families to break poverty cycles
• Marxists - positive policy as it reduces the impacts of capitalism on the proletariat and helps to equalise income; would be better if it dismantled capitalism
• Functionalists - positive policy, creates more equality and supports consensus by solving illnesses to the body of society in the organic analogy
• New Right - negative, creates a culture of welfare dependency and gives too much benefit to ‘deviant families’
• Feminists - reduces the emotional strain on women by providing more support

Question 12

The 1969 Divorce Act (and the 1984 Divorce Act)

Answer 12

Previous to 1969, one partner had to prove that the other was ‘at fault’ in order to be granted a divorce, however, following the Divorce Reform Act of 1969, a marriage could be ended if it had irretrievably broken down, and neither partner no longer had to prove “fault”. However, if only one partner wanted a divorce, they still had to wait 5 years from the date of marriage to get one. In 1984 this was changed so that a divorce could be granted within one year of marriage.

Question 13

Maternity and Paternity Policy – The Employment Protection Act of 1975 and the ‘Paternity Act’ (2010)

Answer 13

• Social responsibility for women’s health during childbearing was first recognised through the 1911 National Insurance Act. It included a universal maternal health benefit and a one off maternity grant of 30 shillings for insured women (around £119 in today’s money)
• However, many women were routinely sacked for becoming pregnant until the late 1970s and the UK only introduced its first maternity leave legislation through the Employment Protection Act 1975. However, for the first 15 years (until 1990!) only about half of working women were eligible for it because of long qualifying periods of employment.
• In 2003, male employees received paid statutory paternity leave for the first time, an entitlement that was extended in January 2010.
• Today in the UK employees can take up to 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave, of which the first two weeks after the baby is born is ‘compulsory’ maternity leave (4 weeks for women who work in a factory).
• Since 2010 (following what is often called the ‘Paternity Act’) – This leave is divided into a two 26-week periods. After the first 26 weeks, the father of the child (or the mother’s partner) has the right to take up to 26 weeks’ leave if their partner returns to work, in effect taking the place of the mother at home. Eligible employees can take similar periods of Statutory Adoption Leave. It is unlawful to dismiss (or single out for redundancy) a pregnant employee for reasons connected with her pregnancy.
• From 2015, parents will be given the right to share the care of their child in the first year after birth. Women in employment will retain their right to 52 weeks of maternity leave. Only mothers will be allowed to take leave in the first two weeks’ leave after birth. But after that parents can divide up the rest of the maternity leave.

Question 14

The Adoption Act 2002 (came into force 2005)

Answer 14

In 2005, under New Labour, the law on adoption changed, giving unmarried couples, including gay couples, the right to adopt on the same basis as married couples

Question 15

The Child Benefit Acts (1975) and significant changes (1998 and 2013

Answer 15

• The Child Benefit Bill introduced for the first time a universal payment, paid for each child. The rate payable was £1/week for the first and £1.50 for each subsequent child. An additional 50p was payable to lone-parent families.
• Child Benefits increased in line with inflation, until 1998, when the new Labour government increased the first child rate by more than 20%, and abolished the Lone Parent rate. Rates increased again in line with inflation until 2010, since which time they have been frozen.
• Effective from 7 January 2013, Child Benefit became means tested – those earning more than £50,000 per year would have part of their benefit withdrawn, and if earning over £60,000, would receive nothing at all.

Question 16

Changes to Income Support for Lone Parents since 2014

Answer 16

There are two main types of out of work benefit for working age people in the UK – Income Support and the Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA). Income support is for those deemed unable to work, JSA is for those who are able to work but currently out of work, and is conditional on proving that you are looking for work. Income support for lone parents over 18 is currently £73.10, the same as for non-parents on both Income Support and JSA.

To qualify for Income Support you must be all of the following:

• Between 16 and Pension Credit qualifying age
• Pregnant, or a carer, or a lone parent with a child under 5 or, in some cases, unable to work because you’re sick or disabled.
• Have no income or a low income (your partner has income and savings will be taken into account)
• Be working less than 16 hours a week (and your partner works less than 24 hours a week)
• Living in England, Scotland or Wales
• Recent changes to the rules mean that single parents of children aged 3-4 are now required to attend more work readiness interviews with their local job centre in preparation for starting work when their children reach school age.

Question 17

Social Policy and families - Conservative governments aims (1979-1997)

Answer 17

The Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, from 1979-1997, were greatly influenced by the New Right perspective.

This influenced their policies in a range of areas, but in terms of their thinking on families it meant:

• Preference for traditional nuclear families
• Encouraging individual and parental responsibility (especially paternal responsibility) and also responsibility for elderly relatives, etc.
• Encouraging mothers to stay at home
• Concern that the welfare system might encourage non-traditional family forms and irresponsible behaviour.

Margaret Thatcher (1988) described the family as “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” as well as “the building block of society”. This is a very traditional and, some would argue, idealistic view of the family, which echoes much functionalist and New Right thought.

Question 18

Social policies under the conservative government (1979-1997) - The New Right

Answer 18

1. The Children Act 1989 – a piece of legislation that clearly outlined the rights of children
2. The Child Support Agency, 1993 – established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children (this included chasing down fathers where there was no longer contact, etc.) This also meant that, where possible, money to support lone parent families came from absent parents as opposed to the government.
3. Married Men’s Tax Allowance – A long-term feature of the UK tax system had been a higher tax-free allowance for married men than single men. Until later in the Thatcher/Major era, married women’s tax affairs were dealt with along with their husband’s, rather than independently, even if they worked full time. There was a change towards individual taxation, to reflect the changed workplace, but the New Right governments tried to maintain a tax allowance for men whose wives did not work, in order to encourage traditional family structures. This was eventually removed under a Labour government (replaced with working-family tax credits for families with children) but has been reintroduced (although today either gender could theoretically receive the allowance providing the other is not earning enough to pay tax). It is ironic that a government led by the country’s foremost working mum should have sought to deter mothers from working, through the tax system.
   Proposed changes to divorce rules – there was a wish on the part of the Thatcher government to make divorce more difficult. There was a moral panic in the 1980s that too many British marriages were ending in divorce. The plan was to have an enforced “cooling off” period of a year between separation and divorce, however the plans were never actually put into practice, partly because of opposition to the idea, and partly because of the impracticality of actually enforcing it.

Question 19

Social policies under the conservative government (1979-1997) - 2

Answer 19

4. Section 28 – The government introduce a rule, in 1988, that prevented local government from “promoting” homosexuality and included the provision that schools could not teach “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” Here the government went beyond promoting the ideal of the traditional nuclear family to directly attacking and indeed denying an alternative family structure.
5. Back to Basics – As prime minister, John Major urged a “back to basics” approach, which he put forward as traditional family values. It was, at the time, associated with rhetorical attacks on lone-parents by some Conservative ministers with a clear New Right perspective (such as John Redwood and Peter Lilley) with some making connections between even the murder of Jamie Bulger and the lone-parent family backgrounds of his killers. The “campaign” did not translate into clear policies, however, and is mostly remembered now because of the large number of “sex scandals” that came to light which were used to paint ministers as hypocrites for preaching traditional morality for others but not practising it themselves.

Question 20

Evaluating Conservative social policy

Answer 20

• Considering how important family and traditional family values was said to be by New Right politicians in the 1980s and 1990s, there was actually not a huge amount of ground-breaking new policy in this area.
• Marxists argue that the New Right is really an ideology to justify policies that benefit the ruling class and capitalism. They would point to something like the Child Support Agency and say that while the goal appeared to be encouraging parental responsibility, really it was all about cutting state expenditure and therefore cutting taxes for the rich (or saving public money to spend on things that benefited the rich). If the absent parent could be tracked down and made to pay maintenance, this reduced the amount of money that the government may have to find in order to support the families in question.
• In many ways the governments of this era were swimming against the tide: their ideology was to protect the traditional family, but this was the period when there was the largest growth in family diversity, the largest increase in divorces, the largest reduction in marriages, important changes in attitudes to sexual orientation, etc. While it would be future governments that legislated to recognise family diversity (for example introducing civil partnerships and later gay marriage), family diversity became a feature of UK society under these governments. In that sense, if their aim was to defend the traditional nuclear family, with a male breadwinner and female housewife, then they failed in this area.
• Some would ask whether trying to encourage a particular family form through tax and benefit changes is a good idea in any case. A little more or less money seems a particularly bad reason to get married or for a couple to stay together.

Question 21

Social Policy and New Labour Government (1997-2010)

Answer 21

• When prime minister Tony Blair came into power in 1997, there was an expectation that there would be a wholesale change in focus for social policy.
• Blair was strongly influenced by the late modernist Anthony Giddens and so, when it came to families, one might have expected a focus on acknowledging and facilitating family diversity. That clearly did form part of those governments’ social agenda, but other parts appeared more like a continuation of the New Right approach.
• Some of their policies focused on helping families as they existed rather than trying to shape the ideal family as the Conservatives did

Question 22

Social policies under the New Labour Government

Answer 22

1. Cuts to lone parent benefits; in the first year of the Blair government, they made some severe cuts to the benefits paid to lone parents. The rationale was that that single parents should go to work while the government would ensure there was more cheap or free childcare. An irony with the New Right’s position on single mothers was that they simultaneously thought that they should not receive benefits or go to work (and the idea of absent fathers paying their way when possible was their solution to that problem). However, the New Labour government was positive about female work and wanted to promote mothers doing more work and children receiving more professional childcare in order to facilitate this.
2. Working family tax credits; This replaced the married man’s tax allowance so both aspects of this policy are worth considering here. First it removed a tax incentive for couples to get married and to stay married. Second it provided a tax allowance for families with children – regardless of whether they were married – to help pay for childcare. It also was designed to encourage both partners (where there were two partners) to work rather than to incentivise one to stay at home. These were later followed with child tax credits which further developed this.
3. Paid paternity leave From 2003, men were able to get two weeks of paid parental leave.
4. Civil Partnership Act (2005) allowed same-sex relationships to be legally recognised on the same terms as marriage (these were effectively marriage in all but name).
5. Adoption and Children’s Act (2002) allowed same-sex couples to adopt children (as well as allowing unmarried heterosexual couples and single people to adopt too).
   - There were other major advances in gay rights, such as an equal age of consent in 2001 and the repeal of Section 28 in 2003.

Question 23

Evaluation of the New Labour Government

Answer 23

• While the New Labour governments did legislate to acknowledge family diversity, they did not create it and their official position was still that marriage (and at that time marriage could only be between a man and a woman) was the best basis for family life. This was expressed in a 1998 policy document called Supporting Families. In that sense, while they were more realistic and pragmatic than the New Right, their concept of an ideal family had not really moved on from the nuclear.
• While they often presented their desire for work to replace welfare in terms of equality and encouraging women to work (and therefore supporting the concept of a symmetrical family, etc.) critics would suggest that it was simply an approach for cutting public spending on welfare.
• Some would now criticise the New Labour governments for not going further. The Civil Partnership Act, for instance, missed the opportunity to bring about true equality and introduce gay marriage (introduced by the coalition government 9 years later). At the time it was felt that it would be too divisive, with strong opposition from religious groups.
• The government did bring in a number of reforms to improve gay rights.

Question 24

A summary - Conservative government

Answer 24

• Saunders 2000 believes governments should explicitly favour married parenthood over other choices
• This government introduced the Family Law Act in 1996, to enforce a one year waiting period before couples could divorce to encourage reconciliation and dissuade people from ruining the traditional family
• Favours nuclear family
• John Major heralded the virtues of traditional family values in his Back to Basics Campaign
• This government introduced the Child Support Act in 1991 to force absent fathers to pay maintenance for their children
• The nuclear family should be encouraged and others discouraged
• Lewis 2001 believed the government should be careful not to condemn alternatives to the nuclear family
• Saunders and Morgan state over-generous welfare benefits supported the rapid growth of lone-parents

Question 25

A summary - New Labour

Answer 25

• Child benefit was increased by 26% to help lone-parent families get out of poverty
• This government favours family diversity
• The New Deal policy helped lone-parents get back into work
• In Supporting Families (1998), it suggested ways of supporting all families
• In the welfare policy, Tony Blair stated that ‘better services and support for parents and not pressure people into preferred families’ is best
• This government introduced various child care schemes such as Sure Start to provide help for low income lone-parent families
• The working families Tax Credits among lone-parents benefits to low-paid jobs

Question 26

What is the bedroom tax?

Answer 26

• As part of benefits changes introduced in April 2013, under the Welfare Reform Act 2012, the government removed so called ‘spare room subsidy’
• Under these changes, tenants in social housing have their benefits reduced by 14% if they have a spare bedroom and 25% if they have two or more, and two children under 16 of the same gender are expected to share one bedroom, as are two children under 10 irrespective of gender
• On average, a tenant affected by the bedroom tax lost £14-£25 a week

Question 27

What was the aim?

Answer 27

• Intended to cut the housing benefit bill and free up housing to help 300,000 people living in overcrowded accommodation, with the Department for Work and Pensions setting a target of 30% of social housing tenants affected to move house by 2017

Question 28

What was the effect?

Answer 28

• Forced tenants to downsize to free up larger housing for those who needed it
• Harder for those who relied on benefits / hit the poorest the worst
• Childhoods are affected by having to share a bedroom
• Forces less stable housing, impacts children and disrupts elderly who live in large council houses
• Creates health problems
• Affects those with disability

Question 29

Criticisms of the bedroom tax?

Answer 29

• Labour came up with the name ‘Bedroom Tax’ and said it would hit the most vulnerable people the hardest, pledging to scrap it as it unfairly effects disabled people and foster care systems
• In response, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, announced foster carers and those in the armed forces would be exempt from the change, just three weeks before it was due to come into force
• In September 2013, the UN special special investigator on housing told the government that it should scrap the bedroom tax after reports of how it was affecting vulnerable citizens
• An academic study also found that the bedroom tax had a range of negative health impacts on many of those who were subjected to it, including stress, anxiety, hunger, ill health and depression - University of Newcastle paper concluded that the tax had increased poverty and had adverse effects on health, wellbeing and social relationships
• A recent legal challenge argued that that the bedroom tax discriminated against vulnerable tenants who had a specially adapted ‘spare room’ for reasons of safety or disability, with the Court of Appeal backing the challenge - government has appealed to Supreme Court

Question 30

Coalition government 2010-2015

Answer 30

• Came into power in 2010 when David Cameron’s Conservatives were the biggest party in parliament but failed to get a majority, therefore forming a collaboration with the Lib dems. Cameron highlighted his own concerns about the breakdown of traditional family values leading to ‘Broken Britain’. Sought to make significant changes to education, increasing parental choice and cutting back many policies designed to help children from poorer backgrounds as part of their general strategy of reducing state spending.
• Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg encouraged policies such as increasing paternity benefits, supporting gender roles and becoming more equal and shared. Alternatively, Cameron continued to promote policies that suggest he regards the nuclear family with traditional gender roles as desirable and ideal.

Question 31

Coalition government policies

Answer 31

• The reintroduction of the married persons’ tax allowance.
• Legal Aid budget cut substantially (enables people on low incomes to access free legal advice) - it is argued that some vulnerable groups will be unable to access legal advice when most needed.
• Child Benefit became means tested, meaning that what had been a universal benefit for all parents was cut for people earning a specific threshold.
• Plans to tackle children’s exposure to adult content on the internet and other media.
• The scaling back or cutting of benefits, replaced by a new credit called universal credit, designed to make people earn more through working rather than claiming benefits - intended to reduce welfare dependency
• Troubled Families programme (2011), designed to help families who have problems and cause problems to the community around them, putting high costs on the public sector - claim to do this by working alongside local authorities to get children back into school , reduce youth crime and antisocial behaviour
• Shared parental leave: both parties in the coalition were keen for parental leave to be able to be shared equally between men and women, rather than it being assumed that women would take an extension period off work while men should only be entitled to two weeks.

Question 32

Impacts of coalition policies

Answer 32

• Reintroduction of the married persons tax, means more people are getting married, supporting a nuclear family, promoting marriage.
• The cut of legal aid means people will not be able to get free legal advice meaning that vulnerable people such as women who have lower income will not be able to access the lower income when they need it e.g If they experienced troubles with divorce.
• Child benefits do not support people with a higher income, as they are left and expected to take responsibility for the costs of their children themselves, however it does support lower income families as it helps provide struggling families with financial costs.
• Tackling children’s exposure to adult content online, can help with sexual regulations, providing the marxist theory of inheritance, and passing on money through a structured nuclear family. Feminists would agree with this as it prevents the objectification of women.

Question 33

Evaluation of Coalition Policy

Answer 33

• Not a consistent thread of social policy relating to families during the period of the government. The main focus of the government was reducing public spending however there was some high-profile pieces of social policy
• Few fathers are taking advantage of additional parental leave beyond the two weeks they were already entitled to. ONly 2% of couples share parental leave and even before the option was introduced, only 40% of fathers used the two weeks they were entitled to.
• The introduction of same-sex marriages while leaving the option of civil partnerships on the table created a new, rather unusual inequality in uk laws: same-sex couples choose a civil partnership were introduced to be marriages in all but name, there were those campaigned for the option to choose them, seeing them as a useful lega arrangement without the historical and cultural baggage of marriage. This was equalised in 2019.

Question 34

New Labour’s policy aims

Answer 34

• New Labour takes a social democratic perspective. Before Labour came into power the UK did not have government departments or ministers exclusively devoted to the upkeep of family. Labour reversed this trend by appointing a minister for Children, Schools and Families which became the Department of Education in 2010. The Labour government took the idea of ‘social investment in children’ more seriously than previous governments by appointing a Children’s Minister to look at their interests and setting goals to eradicate child poverty. Finch (2003) argued that The New Labour approach drifted from the ‘familistic’ view that promoted the nuclear family and leaned more towards an ‘individualistic’ outlook which aimed to extend the rights for both mothers and fathers regardless of whether they were married or not or living in nuclear families to gain better better access to jobs and training.
• He also argued that this government saw children as an individual in their own right by introducing Child Tax Credit and Child Benefits in 2003.The Labour government recognised that families in society consisted of a plethora of various family types and structure and that most families no longer solely relied on a male breadwinner and most families have a dual income where most parents work.
• Furthermore, the New Labour government also ceased to condemn single mothers as a moral problem or social threat in their recognition and appreciation of life being constructed of a rich diversity of family types in addition to the nuclear family.

Question 35

Conservative / New Right Aims

Answer 35

• 18 years of Conservative Government began with Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Strong opposition to trade unions. She kept the NHS. Thatcher remained Leader of the Conservative Party from 1979-1990, along with being PM.
• Policies emphasise individual freedom and discourage excessive state intervention in most areas of social life (individuals should be as self-reliant as possible). State intervention should only be necessary when no alternative is available.
• Despite this, within dysfunctional families, they argue strongly for state intervention, as these families were viewed as harmful for society. Promotion of privatisation. Single parenthood and divorce undermined the independence of families (more state benefits, lack of stable family, more harm to children).

Question 36

The Beveridge Report - 1942

Answer 36

Aims -

• William Beveridge (1879-1963) was a social economist who in November 1942 published a report titled, ‘Social Insurance and Allied Services’ that would provide the blueprint for social policy in post-war Britain. Beveridge had been drawn to the idea of remedying social inequality while working for the Toynbee Hall charitable organisation in East London. He saw that philanthropy was simply not sufficient in such circumstances and a coherent government plan would be the only sufficient action. His vision was to battle against what he called the five giants; idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want.
• His ‘cradle to the grave’ social programme that amongst other proposals called for a free national health service alienated some politicians but it struck a chord with the public and this would influence Clement Attlee’s Labour Government to implement these ideas

Impact:

• More government support for families, being the foundational idea behind many modern institutions that inform and support the family
• Promotes family change and the nuclear family

Question 37

Legalisation of Contraceptive Pill 1967 - Aims and impact

Answer 37

Aims:
- The 1967 Family Planning Act made contraception readily available through the NHS by enabling local health authorities to provide advice to a much wider population. Previously, these services were limited to women whose health was put at risk by pregnancy.

Impacts -
- Changed the purpose and function of the family, allowing more freedom over family structure and when women had a family; improved and deconstructed the role and position of women; they were able to have more control over their priorities

Question 38

Social policy and the family - exam technique

Answer 38

Policies to discuss -

• Welfare benefits -> Bedroom tax; W/C, affects birth rate and children, increases marriage
• The paternity Act -> increases equality, birth rate
• The Divorce Act -> changes family structure, increases equality
• Child protection -> changes roles in the family
• Civil partnerships -> changes structure, changes children, increases equality

Theories to apply -

• Feminism
• New Right - limit welfare dependency, less Gov’t intervention, want to promote nuclear family

How do policies affect -

• Birth rate
• Equality between partners
• Divorce and marriage rates
• Family types and size
• Children
• Different classes / sexualities / ethnicities / age