Development in social policy 1939 - 1964

Question 1

Beveridge report

Answer 1

• December 1942
• proposed a whole new system of welfare in order to conquer poverty backed up by free health service and full employment
• sold over 600 thousand copies
• identified 5 giant social evils
• poverty
• disease conquered by national heath service
• idleness discouraged by full employment policy
• ignorance tackled by reforms in education
• squalors banished by slum clearance programs
• opposition form businessmen and conservatives over the price

Question 2

when was the butler act

Answer 2

1944

Question 3

secondary education for all

Answer 3

• 1944 butler education act
• secondary education available to all free of charge and attendance compulsory
• school leaving age raised to 15

Question 4

provisions of the butler act

Answer 4

• minister of education set up to direct local authorities
• optional nursery schools, primary schools and secondary schools
• tripartite system of grammar technical and modern schools
• eleven plus to allocate spaces at grammar schools
• religion made compulsory at state school

Question 5

outcome of the butler act

Answer 5

• 11+ did not always succeed in picking the brightest students
• few technical schools

Question 6

growth of welfare sate

Answer 6

• many workers remained outside the national insurance scheme
• dependent not included in national insurance
• no child allowance, maternity benefit or death grant
• 1944 butlers education act and 1945 family allowance act formed the basis of the welfare sate

Question 7

family allowance act

Answer 7

• 1945
• paid 5s a week per child in all families
• taxable income
• payments made to mothers not fathers
• 1952 increased to 8s a week

Question 8

insurance act

Answer 8

• national insurance act 1946
• industrial injuries act 1946
• national assistance board 1948
• did not go far enough
• only included people who had made 156 weekly contribution

Question 9

housing acts

Answer 9

• labour oversaw the building of 1.5 million new houses
• 1951 still a shortage of houses in Britain

Question 10

employment reforms

Answer 10

• 1946 unemployment figure down to 2.5%
• a large number of workers needed to carry out post war construction

Question 11

national health service

Answer 11

• national heath service act 1946
• free healthcare for all

Question 12

opposition to bevans plans

Answer 12

• medical profession opposed NHS as it threatened their Independence to choose their own patients and dictate their fees
• Bevan compromised by allowing consultants to keep private patients and work in the NHS
• cost meant that in 1952 prescriptions and dental care were charged

Question 13

growth of education

Answer 13

• rise in the number of secondary schools built after the war
• 1950 30% of 15 year old in full time education
• 1913 only 5.8% of 14-16 year old in full time education
• however a vast majority of people left school without qualifications
• 11+ phased out by Wilson labour government in 1965
• many British unis were funded in the 1950s