labours creation of welfare state

Question 1

what report appeared in 1942 & what did it provide

Answer 1

1942 beveridge report = provided blueprint for social reconstruction

Question 2

which 4 major measures were introduced in 1948

Answer 2

• national insurance act
• national assisstance act
• industrial injures act
• national health service act

Question 3

describe the national insurance act

Answer 3

created system of universal & compulsory governemnt-employer-employee contributions to provide against unemployment, sickness, maternity expenses, widowhood & retirement

Question 4

describe the national assistance act

Answer 4

• complemented national insurance
• established national assistance boards to deal directly & financially with cases of hardship/poverty

Question 5

describe the industrial injuries act

Answer 5

provided cover for accidents occurring in the workplace

Question 6

national health service act

Answer 6

• brought whole population (regardless of status/income) into scheme of freee medical & hospital treatment
• drug prescriptions, dental & optical care were included
• existing voluntary & local authority hospitals co-ordinated into single, national system to be operated at local level by appointed health boards
• national health service (NHS) to be funded by general taxation & national insurance

Question 7

what 2 other measures were introduced

Answer 7

• education act (butler act) 1944
• family allowances act (1945)

Question 8

describe the education act (butler act) 1944

Answer 8

• introduced by R.A. butler (conservative)
• 1st attack one one of beveridges 5 giants (ignorance)
• provided compulsory free education within 3-tier secondary school system
• pupils (age 11) were to take the ‘eleven plus’ to determine whether they attend a secondary-grammar, secondary-technical or secondary-modern

Question 9

describe the family allowances act (1945)

Answer 9

• weekly payment of 5s. (25p) for every additional child after the first
• money paid directly to mother & didn’t require means test

Question 10

how can the welfare state be described

Answer 10

• social revolution
• built on what was already there
• constructive rather than deconstructive & built upon precedent
• responsible act of social reconstruction

Question 11

what did the welfare state demonstrate

Answer 11

labour wasn’t determined to pursue revolutionary socialist policies

Question 12

what did labours moves towards a welfare state demonstrate

Answer 12

• high point of progressive liberalism
• tradition begun by liberal governments 1906-14

Question 13

most notorious opposition to introduction of NHS

Answer 13

british medical association (BMA) = delayed introduction of act till 1948 (intended for 1947)

Question 14

what did a poll of doctors in march 1948 reveal

Answer 14

out of the 80% of the profession that voted, only 4735 supported the NHS scheme & 40,814 were against it

Question 15

doctors basic objections to NHS

Answer 15

• feared loss of income
• didn’t want to become ‘state-salaried civil servants’
• feared government interference in doctor-patient relationships
• concerned that regional management boards which would run NHS would remove independence as practitioners
• regarded NHS as form of nationalisation which treated medical profession like it were an industry

Question 16

how did bevan pacify the opposition to the NHS

Answer 16

• buy off the BMA but only in return for guarantee they would not suffer financially & allowed to keep their private practices
• ‘stuffing their mouths with gold’

Question 17

main features of NHS (1948)

Answer 17

• primary care provided by GPs who would work as independent contractors & be paid for each patient on their books
• dentists & opticians would continue to operate as private practitioners (still provide NHS treatment)
• hospitals run by 14 regional boards which would appoint local management committees to oversee matters at local level
• community health provision (eg. maternity care, vaccinations, ambulance service) provided by local authorities
• medical prescriptions provided free of charge

Question 18

further concessions bevan had to make due to BMA’s demands

Answer 18

• private practices/hospitals where doctors charged their patients fees could continue = enabled GPs to be both NHS & private doctors
• ‘pay beds’ for private fee-paying patients were reserved in NHS hospitals
• teaching hospitals were to be run by independent governors outside government control

Question 19

what did a healthy society mean

Answer 19

• fewer workers absent
• efficiency & wages would rise
• hgher wages would produce higher tax yields = increased revenue for state to finance welfare provisions
  = however, unrealistic

Question 20

what had begun to happen by mid-1950s & what was the result

Answer 20

• demand for treatment would outstrip supply
• cost of drugs & medical appliances would spiral beyond capacity of government to match it from revenue

= charges for prescriptions introduced in 1951
= further charges introduced for spectacles & dental treatment

Question 21

how much did prescriptions increase by

Answer 21

before NHS = 7 million per month
september 1948 = 13.5 million per month

Question 22

how much did the NHS cost by 1950

Answer 22

£358m per year

Question 24

criticisms of 1944 butler act

Answer 24

• policy of 11+ exam dictating which school children got into was seen to be highly socially divisive & highly contientious
• argued little done to enhance opportunities of working class children

Question 25

what did the 1951 consensus reveal about homes

Answer 25

750,000 fewer homes than households (approx. same level of homelessness as in 1931)

Question 26

scale of bevans achievement

Answer 26

- created essential feature of welfare state - put into practical form the principle that the safeguarding of the health of the people (individually/collectively) was a prime duty iof the government