How has Welfare provision looked different over time? Flashcards
What was housing like in the interwar years?
- 1919 Housing + Town Planning Act - Attempt to build 600,000 new homes. Only 213,000 built before Geddes Axe cut spending (from £206 mil to £182 mil funding)
- As a result, housing shortage grew worse with around 822,000 shortfall of houses in 1923
- 1930 Housing Act moved people to better housing + created ‘cottage estates’ - plan was rushed + only successful in some areas
What was housing like in post-war years?
- 700,000 homes had been destroyed in the war
- 1945-1951 one million homes were built - 4/5 homes built by gov
- Use of pre-fab housing as they were quick to make - around 150,000 built but there still was a shortfall
- 1946 New Towns Act - designed to deal with overcrowding in cities
Give other important context to the area of housing in welfare provision over time
- Gov was far more dynamic + interventionist thanks to commitment to mixed econ. during + after WW2
- Commitment to ‘balance the books’ (Geddes Axe 1922) made slump worse in the 1920s
- Keynes in 1940s
What were the similarities in area of housing during interwar years vs post-war years?
- Both time periods had a shortage of housing
- Both recognised overcrowding was a problem
- Both introduced an act with the same aim
- Both time periods the gov had a vision to create a better
Britain following the war
What were the differences in area of housing during interwar years vs post-war years?
- Gov more willing to take direct action after WW2 by getting involved in market - really well illustrated by fact that 4/5 built by gov
- A lot more houses built in post war years than interwar years (a lot more successful)
- Although both introduced an act with the same aim, the act in post-war years was more fulfilled
- Pre-fab housing in post-war years was more quick + efficient
What was National Insurance + family support like in the interwar years?
- Passed to make sure most workers received unemployment insurance - only 2/3s had access (not universal)
- Economic slump of the 1920s made it unaffordable + the gov had to introduce means testing
- National Insurance Act was undermined by the war as many of the 3.5 mil returning troops not eligible
What was National Insurance + family support like in the post-war years?
- 1946 National Insurance Act created a compulsory system to help pay for pensions + benefits for the unemployed
- Payments were made by gov, employer + employee (self-funded)
- Support sickness, unemployment, maternity expenses, widowhood + retirement
Give other important context to the area of National Insurance in welfare provision over time
- Pensions before ‘46 only covered 65-70 thanks to 1925 Pensions Act
- After 1944 gov was committed to a policy of full employment - therefore it was a lot easier to make system self-funding
What were the similarities in area of National Insurance during interwar years vs post-war years?
In both time periods, the gov gave benefits (but in interwar years it wasn’t universal)
What were the differences in area of National Insurance during interwar years vs post-war years?
- Means testing was abolished/ended after WW2
* Became more accessible + universal
What was the impact of change in National Insurance over time?
Better protection for unemployed/sick
What was the impact of change in housing over time?
- Better quality of housing (less overcrowding)
- Decrease in the shortage/shortfall of housing
- Impact of Geddes Axe in interwar years - cut spending by millions
What were the similarities in area of healthcare during interwar years vs post-war years?
- Both tried to provide healthcare to most vulnerable
- Both recognised the problem of health + disease + tried to solve the problem
- Both tried to improve Brit. overall health
What were the differences in area of healthcare during interwar years vs post-war years?
- But before NHS it wasn’t fully universal but after it was + was also free
- Before NHS it didn’t work well (not successful) + not centralised/coordinated well but after NHS it was
- Healthcare improved more significantly after NHS as it was universal + more discoveries were made
Give other important context to the area of healthcare in welfare provision over time
- Beveridge Report significantly changed healthcare for the better
- WW2 was a big turning point - it helped create a consensus on healthcare system
- Mutual Aid Funds - before NHS healthcare wasn’t free
What was the impact of change in healthcare over time?
- Standard health increased (life expectancy higher etc.)
- Rising costs caused Brit. to have £800 mil deficit (negative)
- Healthcare available to everyone
What 4 areas can healthcare before the NHS be split into?
- Limits of the 1911 Nat. Insurance Act
- The War + Ministry of Health
- Mutual Aid funds/Friendly Societies/GP + Hospital access
- Gov change during interwar years
How did Limits of the 1911 Nat. Insurance Act affect healthcare before the NHS?
- Who wasn’t covered? : workers’ families & women + children were most vulnerable + had least access to healthcare
- Free medical treatment + sick pay for those who earned (compulsory health insurance)
- Employers, employees + gov. paid into scheme
How did the War + Ministry of Health affect healthcare before the NHS?
- Poor standard of health revealed by war - 40% of men declared unfit for combat (those who applied)
- Ministry of Health wanted to coordinate healthcare
- Limits to the Ministry of Health
What were limits to the Ministry of Health?
- It lacked authority + political will to drastically reform healthcare system
- Medical services e.g School Medical Service + Factory Health Inspectorate were still controlled by other authorities
How did Mutual Aid funds/Friendly Societies/GP + Hospital access affect healthcare before the NHS?
- What are Aid societies? : They are organisations formed to provide mutual aid (voluntary pay), benefit + insurance - could easily collapse as no. insurance from gov
- Problems with GP access - patient would have to pay for consultation (1/10 of weeks earnings - expensive) + medicine which means GPs unevenly distributed (work in wealthier areas)
- Problems/limits with hospital care
- Limits to Aid funds - widows, wives, children of workers still not insured by 1911 Nat. Insurance Act
What were problems/limits with hospital care?
- Only 12 teaching hospitals in London + 10 in province - were the best hospitals + relied on wealthy donations
- Voluntary hospitals - small + less financially stable secure (end of 1930s in big financial trouble)
How did government change during interwar years affect healthcare before the NHS?
- Local Government Act 1929
- Impact of LGA Act of 1929
- Growth in gov insurance 1918-1939
- Consensus formed around healthcare - WW2 helped to create a consensus on healthcare reform + was underpinned by intro. of national emergency healthcare system (intro. to treat casualties from blitz)
What was the Local Government Act 1929?
- Local gov responsible running healthcare services e.g dentistry + schools’ medical services - the act made local gov responsible for coordinating healthcare provision
- Poor Law Hospitals in hands of local gov. + they converted them to local hospitals
What was the impact of LGA Act of 1929?
- By 1938, 43% of pop. was insured (but still less than half)
- Healthcare improving - infant mortality rates falling
- By 1939, more groups e.g writers for Lancet advocated an NHS
- Various forms of hospital care developed e.g England + Wales provided 75,000 hospital beds
Describe the growth in gov insurance 1918-1939
- Emergency Medical Service 1939 - allowed for resources to be pooled. EMS provided blueprint for NHS
- National Blood Transfusion Service
- In 1944 gov. presented White Paper A NHS (comprehensive + free of charge)
What 4 areas can healthcare as a result of the NHS be split into?
- Impact of WW2 on healthcare
- Opposition to NHS
- Successes/problems
- Creation of the NHS
What was the impact of WW2 on healthcare?
- Emergency Medical Service: provided first aid for air raid casualties + to dictate to hospitals’ health provision - EMS later used to treat civilians + evacuate children
- Beveridge Report (disease was one of 5 giants) - in 1944 gov presented White Paper A NHS (comprehensive + free of charge medical service) + it called for an NHS
Who opposed the idea of the NHS
- BMA (British Medical Association)
* Conservative Party
Explain why BMA eventually backed down from opposing the idea of having an NHS
- Feb 1948 - 90% of BMA voted against working with NHS
- Argued working for state would undermine their clinical independence + feared becoming civil servants (probably more concerned about loss of income)
- Bevan overcame opposition by granting them a fee for each patient + allowed them to retain private patients
Explain why the Conservative Party opposed to the idea of the NHS
- Voted against NHS 21 times before it was passed (they were against state control)
- Bevan attacked tories for opposing NHS stating they were ‘lower than vermin’ in a speech
Describe the creation of the NHS
- Role of Nye Bevan (minister of health in Atlee gov) - aimed to create centrally run system funded through taxes (not insurance) to provide free healthcare for all
- The Labour Manifesto 1945 - declared they would provide free healthcare + all funded through taxes
- 1946 National Insurance Act - established for more coordinated, centralised system (voluntary hospitals nationalised + Approved Societies forced to rely on priv. clients)
What were the 3 main successes/problems of healthcare as a result of the NHS?
- Health in Britain got better
- Medical advances
- Rising costs
Give examples of how health in Brit. improved as a result of NHS
- Fall in child mortality rates + maternal deaths
- Improved methods of combating disease + researched into new techniques, vaccines + medicines
- Increased life expectancy - 66 in 1950 to 70 in 1979 for men
Give examples of how medicine advanced as a result of NHS
- Mass immunisation programmes - drop in cases of polio + diphtheria (diphtheria eradicated in 1984)
- New antibiotic drugs developed in US caused no. deaths to fall from 25,000 to 800 a year
- 1st heart transplant in 1968
- 1953 - DNA structure discovered
- MMR vaccine offered for free
Describe why there were rising costs as a result of the NHS
- No. of staff doubled between 1948-1973
- People too dependent on NHS + complained about very small problems - ‘dandruff syndrome’
- Increase in treatments available meant increased cost of healthcare
- Expected that costs of healthcare would fall after 1948 but this was incorrect - from 1950-1970 cost of NHS increased from 4.1% of GNP to 4.8%
Name the education act and the report from the interwar years and include the date they were introduced/established
- Fisher Education Act - 1918
* Hadow Report - 1926
Name the two reports and the act on education introduced/established from the post-war years
- The Robbins Report - 1963
- The Crossland Circular - 1965
- The Plowden Report - 1967
Name the education act introduced during WW2
Butler Act - 1944
What three areas were affected by education in Britain in the long term?
- Society
- Economy - more money
- Culture - entertainment, arts + music
What was the ‘satire boom’?
- Comedy on real life situations at the time
* Time where people benefited from the Butler Act
What was the Fisher Education Act (1918)?
- Leaving age increased to 14
- Provided nursery school to toddlers + ‘contribution schools’ for those who left school to get jobs to continue studying 1 day a week (compulsory) - Geddes Axe scrapped this as education spending cut by 1/3
- Compulsory health check for school pupils - preventing child labour (change in social views that children shouldn’t work at young age + go to school) + punished those who employed children
What was the Hadow Report (1926)?
- Framework + inspiration for the Butler Act
- Recommended that there should be a change of department for children at age of the 11 as well as at age 7
- This lead to the creation of primary schools (instead of elementary schools) for children 5-11
- Recommended that school leaving age should be raised to 15
*Recommended dividing secondary schools into grammar + modern
However, nothing was done about this report + by 1938 only 45% of secondary school places were free
What was the Butler Education Act (1944)?
- Aimed to create a meritocratic (tripartite) system
- School leaving age is increased to 15 in 1947
- Secondary education made free + universal
- It was believed that a child’s ability was fixed by the age of 11 + could be accurately measured with a special type of IQ test (11+ test)
- The result of the 11+ test would then determine which type of school the child attended
- Tripartite system (after 11+ test): grammar school, secondary modern or T-school
What were the effects + limits of the Butler Act?
- 5% of pupils went to T-schools (led to damaging economy)
- 70% went to secondary modern (left at 15)
- 20% received highly academic education
- ‘Esteem issues’ (self-esteem) - this tripartite system created this
- Butler Act did not take on public (private) schools
(State school + public school different - public school was like private schools now)
Give context of young people attending university before the Robins Report
- % of 18-21 year olds at uni - only from 0.8% to 4% between 1900 and 1962
- Universities tended to cater more for classics + arts than to science
- London increasingly specialising in STEM subjects
What was the Robbins Report (1963)?
- Made as a baby-boomer generation was approaching the end of secondary education
- Report recommended:
- A universal national grant be provided to all students with a university place
- There should be a large increase in state funding to increase the no. of uni places
- 1962-1970, no. of unis went up from 22 to 46
- Polytechnics offered vocational degrees (but these seen as inferior)
- 1969 was the launch of the Open University - aimed mainly to adults + people of all backgrounds
- Better access to uni education increased so workforce became more educated - no. of people who could demand for higher salaries for skilled work increased
What was Crossland Circular (1965)?
- 1960-1979 there was a large debate on whether comprehensive schools should replace tripartite system as a fairer + more equal form of education
- 1966 they restricted funding for LEA’s (forced to turn schools into comps - otherwise no funding)
- Comps were popular with teacher unions (working-class thought it would allow social mobility) + middle class parents (thought it was fair)
- By 1979, 90% were educated at comprehensives
What was the Plowden Report (1967)?
- Was a report on primary schools that promoted more liberal teaching methods + progressive reforms like:
- A large programme of nursery school building
- More project-based work in prim. schools rather than teacher-led activities
- A focus on learning through play in early years of teaching
- The teaching of grammar + punctuation was seen as a hindrance to creativity + a threat to progress
(However some schools took liberal reforms to extremes + parents were worried - schools not strict enough)
