Policy Flashcards
List the key social (reform) policies from 60s/70s
- 1967 Abortion Act
- 1967 Sexual Offenses Act
- 1969 Divorce Reform Act
- 1970 Equal Pay Act
- 1975 Sex Discrimination Act
- (not through policy) availability of contraceptive pill - 1961 through NHS to married women
What did the 1967 Abortion Act do?
Legalised abortion in the UK & made it available through the NHS.
What did the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act do?
PARTIALLY decriminalised male homosexuality, the age of consent was set at 21.
What did the 1969 Divorce Reform Act do?
Reduced the previously high cost of divorce & made the legal process much simpler - ‘irretrievable breakdown’ clause
What did the 1970 Equal Pay Act do?
Made it illegal for employers to pay women less than their male colleagues in the same jobs - ‘encouraged’ women, esp mothers, to enter the workforce in large numbers
What did the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act do?
Made it illegal for employers to not hire women on the basis of their gender
List the key policies introduced under the 1979-97 Conservative governments (Thatcher & Major)
- The Children Act 1989
- The Child Support Agency 1993
- Section 28 (1988)
- Proposed changed to divorce rules (80s)
What did The Children Act 1989 do?
- legislation which clearly outlines the rights of children & safeguarded them from harm
- major emphasis was put on the role of the family & less on local services
What did The Child Support Agency 1993 do?
- established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
- This included chasing down fathers which lost contact
- Meant money to support lone parents came from within the family rather than the state
What did Section 28 (1988) do?
- prevented local gov’s from promoting homosexuality
- stopped schools from teaching about it & ‘the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretend family relationship’
- Example of how the gov went beyond promoting n family to actually attack alt structures
What were the proposed changes to divorce rules in the 80s?
- desire to make divorce more difficult
- moral panic took hold over too many marriages ending in divorce
- The plan was the enforce a ‘cooling off’ period between separation & divorce
- plans not put into practice due to the impracticality of enforcing it & opposition to the idea
List the key policies introduced by the 1997-10 New Labour government (Blair & Brown)
- Child Tax Credit Policy (2001)
- Adoption & Children’s Act (2002)
- Paid Paternity Leave (2003)
- Civil Partnership Act (2005)
What did the Child Tax Credit Policy (2001) do?
- depending on the number of children you have, it reduced the amount of tax you paid slightly
- paid to the main carer - mother
How did Morgan criticise the Child Tax Credit Policy (2001)?
- argues that the gov’s family policy undermined both marriage & the traditional family
- This is because it’s biased towards single parents, dual-career families & gay couples
- all at the expense of single-earner, two parents n families
What did the Adoption & Children’s Act (2002) do?
- allowed gay people (single, couples, unmarried) to adopt children
What other major advances in gay rights were achieved under New Labour?
- repeal of section 28
* equal age of consent (2001)
What did the new paid paternity leave policy (2003) d0?
- allowed men TWO WEEKS paid paternity leave
- this encouraged women in the workplace & a more equal distribution of domestic labour (childcare)
What did the Civil Partnership Act (2005) do?
- allowed same-sex relationships to be legally recognised on the same terms as marriage
- these were effectively marriage in all but the same
List the socially conservative policies introduced under the modern conservative gov (Cameron - coalition, May, Johnson)
- removal of the so-called couples’ penalty
- Troubled Families Programme (2012)
- The proposed Dementia Tax (2016-17)
- child tax credits restriction (2017)
- REMOVAL Free School Meals (2020)
What did the removal of the so-called couples’ penalty do?
- removed the means test which usually resulted in couples gaining fewer benefits from when they were single (the couples joint income was means-tested)
- Cameron did this so the benefits system did not include a perverse incentive for couples to break up in order to receive more benefits
What did the Troubled Families Programme (2012) do?
- Following the LDN riots (2011), many tories were worried about broke families & the quality of family life
- Coalition introduced the TFP which identified 120,000 households who:
- were involved in crime/antisocial behaviour
- children who truanted from school
- had parents in long term unemployment
- the programme aimed to get parents back into work & children back into education
What was the proposed Dementia tax in 2016-17?
- Theresa May
- forced elderly people who have assets (money & housing) worth over £100,000 to pay for any social care they received as they got older
- previously, unless you had more than £23,000 in your bank, you would be entitled to free social care from the council
What change was made to Child Tax Credits under the coalition gov?
- Child tax credits are only available for 2 children (& the equivalent for those on universal credit)
- Some suggest this is designed to change the behaviour & discourage people on low incomes from having a larger family
- Clearly a cost-saving measure as well
What change was attempted by Boris Johnson to Free School Meals (2020)?
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, cost-saving measures were necessary
- it was proposed that remove free school meals however, this faced an sg amount of backlash (Rashford)
- the gov did a U-turn and continued free schools meals especially during the harsh times of the pandemic
List the socially liberal policies passed under the modern conservative government? (Cameron, May, Johnson)
- Equal Marriage Act (2013/14)
- Shared parental leave
- Married Couple’s tax allowance
- FSC
What did the Equal Marriage Act (2013/14) do?
- legalised gay marriage
- allowed to marry in religious ceremonies, where the religious organisation has ‘opted in’ to conduct such ceremonies and the minister of religion agrees
- clear support from tories & liberals although much opposition from traditionalists & religious organisations
What did the shared parental leave policy do?
- made parental leave for mother & father equal
- both parents could take off equal amounts of time, men not restricted just to 2 weeks
(statistics show few men actually use this to go over the 2 weeks)
What did the Married Couple’s Tax allowance do?
- brought back a tax allowance whereby only one member of a married couple pays tax
- applies to all married couples (regardless of gender or sexual orientation) & civil partnerships
- Doesn’t matter which member of the marriage is the ‘breadwinner’/homemaker
This shows that this isn’t a return to old fashioned values, although at first, it may seem like it.
How can the policy of Free School Meals be seen as socially liberal?
- Although Boris tried to take it away, pressure from the public & influential figures (Rashford) caused them to continue providing FSM
- This is socially liberal as it’s supporting families & fulfilling (as Functionalists would assert) one of the families functions
