The Factors That Led to Developments of the British Welfare - Assignment Example

British Welfare TASK Complete A Detailed Plan Outlining The Structure And Content Of Your Report AndDetails Of The Resources You Intend To Use. Outline The report will examine the factors that led to developments of the British welfare and analysed theories that relate social inequality. The introduction of the report gives an overview of the welfare state including the purpose for its introduction. It examines the development process of the welfare state and roles of various participants. It uses secondary sources obtained from various sources such government database, organisations database, books, journal publications and organisations website to extract relevant information. The report focuses on the significance of the welfare state in UK and how effective this has been implemented. It gives analysis regarding the extent to which the state intervention is necessary to promote social welfare. This is supported by various theories and models applied to determine the efficiency of implementing welfare state and assessing it the outcome. The body of the report examines the various reforms that taken place since its inception. This analysis includes political, social and economic conditions that necessitated the establishment and reforms of welfare states. It gives central focus on the influence of various theories of the social welfare. Marxism, liberalism and neoliberalism are considered as the most influential theories that support the development of welfare states. The political parties such as liberal, conservative and Democrat played significance roles in the development and reformation of the welfare state. Furthermore, non-governmental organisations and individuals had made significant changes to the welfare state (Sines, Forbes-Burford & Saunders. 2013). The report also delves into various effects the British welfare provision has on health inequality about social class gender or inequality. This examines various effects of the welfare of the social classes. This involves using various models used to evaluate the inequality of health outcome among groups from different social class (Nolan, 2001). There are various models applied, in this case, such as psycho-social, materialistic, behavioural and life-course models. The materialistic model examines how accessibility or lack of relevant basic needs can make one indulge in risky life such as poor diet and housing. Behavioural model examines the effects of social class on human behaviour such as consumption of drugs, smoking, etc. psycho-social model focuses on the effects of work-related issues or pressure from work or the degree of autonomy and their effects on social class (Nolan, 2001). Are those in power exposed to heart conditions than the poor or the controlled? Is the work related pressure and the inability of the low-class people to establish work-life balance associated with stress and other psychological conditions? Finally, the life-course model postulates that the health status of a person is influenced by cumulative experiences gathered throughout someone’s life (Nolan, 2001). It relates the how persons past life can affect their future lives based on the social class in which they belong or have been in the past. Another issue examined in the report is the theories elaborating the inequality of health outcome in the welfare state. These includes artefact, selection, structural and behavioural or cultural theories. Lastly, the report includes a conclusion that provides a synopsis of the report. TASK 2: Regarding At Least Two Relevant Theories, Evaluate The Developments Of The British Welfare Provision And The Impact It Has On Health Inequalities About Social Class, Gender Or Ethnicity. Introduction The study examines various political, social and economic aspects that contributed to the development of the British Welfare State giving special attention to the prominent components in those days and that are still vital in the present society (Sines, et al., 2013). It examines various theories supporting the welfare state and those assessing the causes of health inequality outcome in the society. A welfare state refers to the government model that enables the state to be proactive in promoting and protecting social and economic welfare of its citizens (George, 2003). It focuses on the norm equal wealth distribution, equal opportunity and obligation to the public to provide for those who are incapable of meeting minimal requirements for better life (Black, 2011). The Welfare State involves the transfer of resources from the state to the provision of social services such as education, healthcare and benefits to individuals. It ensures tough regulations of the industry, housing, food and redistributive taxation. The issues under regulations include controls on weights and measures, safety rules, etc. 1.1: The Nature of State Welfare Provision. The idea of welfare state was planned by the Royal Commission enactment of the Poor Laws 1832 after establishing that the poor old laws encouraged extensive common criminality, squalor, abuse and idleness to the beneficiaries in comparison to the recipients of private donations. The current welfare state in Great Britain was established by welfare reforms of liberal party between 1906 and 1914 (George, 2003). For instance, in 1908 the Old-Age Pensions Act was enacted besides of the reforms such as Labour Exchange Act of 1909, the free schools meals in 1909 and the Development Act 1909 that led to the government intervention in promoting economic development. Until 1939 the non-governmental organisations paid for most of the healthcare through trade unions, insurance schemes and friendly societies (George, 2003). The organisations offered insurance for illnesses, disability and unemployment as well as providing income for the people who were incapable of working The period of typical welfare state was between 1945 and 1980s after Thatcher’s government (Nolan, 2001). The later governments embarked privatisation of public institutions though they maintained some aspects of state welfare such as contributions on national insurance and providing pensions for the old age. The establishment of National Health Services (NHS) involved nationalisation of charitable institutions and municipal services with a focus to homogenise care across the nation. The target was to reduce the cost of healthcare because or decline in demand for medical services as more people became healthier. NHS was founded by the labour government in 1948 and in 1951 it introduced spectacles and debentures (Nolan, 2001). In 1952 the conservative government introduced prescription fees. The central idea of the welfare state was to have free healthcare at the point of consumption which the conservative government was not modify in the future. After the general election of 1906 in the United Kingdom the liberal party implemented various reforms in the liberal welfare that formed the base the modern state welfare. Those reforms were implemented in the following forty years (George, 2003). Due to the influence of communists’ revolts witnessed during the First World War the state was ardent to ensure implementation of the reforms mitigated the menace of mass public disorder. This was backed by the demand of the complex modern industry for well-educated and healthy workers than what the ancient industry had. Notably, the increased government control during the Second World War had accustomed the society to the perception that the state had a capacity to unravel the issues affecting varied areas of general life (George, 2003). Furthermore, the community mixing implicated in armed forces services and the massive withdrawal of children resulted to improved welfare support amongst the middle classes. Following labour party’s victory in 1945 general election the government pledged to get rid of the five Giants Evils and consequently embarked on policy processes to deliver to the public from beginning to end of life (Beveridge, 1942). The party’s victory was because of its agenda for setting up Welfare State. This led to the birth of National Insurance Act 1946, National Insurance (Industrial Industries) Act 1946 and National Assistance Act 1948. However, since 1980s the government started withdrawing some facilities in England such as drug prescription and free eye test that has resulted to inflation of the cost of offering these services (Beveridge, 1942). Though different UK countries have varying policies the fundamental government policy has focused on providing of welfare state to present. The government stiffened the requirements for obtaining aids a decision that either forced recipients to seek employment or private donations. Later on, various reports indicated the rising level of poverty in Britain especially in great industries towns where between 25% and 34% of the residents were living below the poverty level (Beveridge, 1942). For instance, the 1942 Beveridge report recognised five types of “Giant evils” in the society namely diseases, squalor, want, ignorance and idleness (Beveridge, 1942). The report had a recommendation for mandatory, national flat rate insurance structure that would syndicate education, health and pension. In order to avoid abuse of the scheme, the report recommended that the government should not provide unemployment allowances at the subsistence level and that after six months the benefits should be restricted to provisional training or work in order to protect the scheme against abuse (Beveridge, 1942). The anticipations were that people would consider the procedure for the provision of any benefits as shameful and demeaning so that only the individuals who were utterly desperate would turn out for help. After adoption of the recommendations by Beveridges the institution operated by the local councils to offer health care services for uninsured poor some of the workhouses and the traditional poor law were combined into the new nationwide system (Beveridge, 1942). As a result of these reforms, the Church of England surrendered the ownership various churches, schools, hospitals and other bodies to the school, churches and other institutions to the state and closed voluntary relief network. Welfare State is possible in a mixed economy whereby the funds for financing the welfare are obtained through redistributionist taxation. Taxation helps to reduce income gap through progressive tax whereby people with higher income pays a higher tax than low-income earners. The Welfare State has significant influence in the lives of the United Kingdom’s community. Since its inception in early 19th century, the Welfare State has undergone various reforms (Black, 2011). The development of welfare state contributes to payments of benefits, provision of health, social housing, education and social work. However, the provision of these welfare services is influenced by prevailing economic, political and social environment. There are various theories that elaborate about the development of welfare state (Black, 2011). The welfare state in UK is a form of the social protection scheme provided by the state, sovereign, charitable and independent public services. As theories suggest, the welfare states are established to for those who are desperately in need of help or offer common services to the entire society. Improved technology, social such as demographic tendency and economic factors such as changes in per capita income affects demand for the welfare state and the extent it should spread (Black, 2011). 1.2: Theories of welfare. The development of welfare state is based on the government’s perception that it improves life expectancy and healthy of the people (Sines, et al., 2013). Living longer and healthier lives imply an increase in pensionable individuals and a decrease in the ratio of workers to support the pension thus resulting in an economic imbalance. Welfare states are built around various social, political and economic theories that expound on development, delivery and impact of the welfare state in the society (Sines, et al., 2013). An example of such approaches includes Marxism, liberalism and neoliberalism theories. Marxism Theory Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels developed Marxism theory that was considered as another key pillar in the development of welfare state. However, the primary goals of Marx and Engels were to stimulate communism to enable working class snatch political and economic control from the capitalist class (Haralambos & Van Krieken, 2000). They believed a Marxist state would improve welfare state to eliminate poverty, protect workers, support communism and prosperity. This would be achieved by replacing capitalism with communism to ensure all people had equal to satisfy their needs. There was no specific approach developed by Marxists to achieve welfare (Black, 2011). Therefore, some believed in establishing a parliamentary system of governance and imposition of welfare state. Also, some programmes such as Seminal Erfurt of the 1981supported provision of welfare such as introducing eight-hour working day, free education, free medical care, equality for women and minimum wages. Consequently, various nations adopted and implemented welfare states in Europe (Black, 2011). Liberalism Theory Liberalism emphasizes on the roles of individuals on satisfying their own needs. This theory suggests that there is the minimal role of government in getting involved to offer assistance to individuals who are incapable of providing for their needs. This theory supports the establishment of the capitalist market as a means of providing the needs of the society (Haralambos & Van Krieken, 2000). The liberal party applied this theory in Britain whereby the needy people were placed in workhouses so that they could provide their labour in exchange for housing and food while the capitalist benefited from the output of the poor workers. Liberalists held views that the government’s role was to offer individuals with the freedom to make their decisions, but should extend their support to the needy in the society (Sines, et al., 2013). Therefore, the government intervention was necessary through the establishment of regulations and property rights. This liberalism also referred as laissez-fair recognized the government’s role in the society as a referee with focusing to create a fair playground for the businesses without interferences by the state. However, studies indicate that the free economy has weaknesses since it fails to protect businesses during the economic recession as was the case of great depression between 1929 and 1933 (Sines, et al., 2013). Furthermore, the poor people were unable to overcome their poverty Eve during periods of economic boom. This viewpoint of the economists led to the introduction of a different theory of neoliberalism. The pioneers of new liberalism were economists such as John Keynes and William Beveridge. The neoliberalism theory suggests an increased state intervention to improve the provision of welfare states life (Beveridge, 1942). This theory motivated the Liberal government to introduce unemployment benefits and old age pension provided by the state. Keynes and Beveridges perception led the government to develop broad welfare state. Neo-Liberalism Neo-liberalism theory supports laissez-fair theory of economic liberalism requiring expansion of liberalisation rules such as minimising pubic spending, financial austerity, free trade, privatisation and deregulation to heighten the functions of private sectors in the economy (Sines, et al., 2013). The advocates of neoliberalism believed that the Keynesian economics and other supporters of welfare state were causing political and economic stagnation thus they were no longer essential though they had made immense contribution towards post-war economic recovery their effects started waning towards late 1960s and 1970s. In Britain, the neoliberalism is closely associated with the policies introduced during the reign of Margret Thatcher that disowned Keynesian economics and focused on reducing the welfare state (Sines, et al., 2013). The adoption of Thatcherism policies led to the privatisation of nationalised industries, selling off the council owned houses and ended the government support for weak private businesses. The ensuing high rate of unemployment increase benefits payment and the demand for more civil servants to process those made it impractical for the government to implement the intended reduction of expenditure on the welfare state (Beveridge, 1942). Though the neoliberalism policies viewed the government policies on welfare state negatively, it only managed to impose reforms and could not do away with it completely. 2.1: Impact of Social Class on Health In UK, the delivery of health is influenced by the different community, individuals and public elements. These affect the delivery and access to health care among the recipient. The social class of the recipients has a significant effect on the quality of care of the individuals and consequently the inequalities out health outcome. The social classes in the society arise due to differences in income, education and wealth (Haralambos & Van Krieken, 2000). The variations in the social class have been in existence for a long time, and they continue to expand over time. These inequalities cut across gender, age and ethnicity for most of the major disorders in UK and across the globe. The effect of social class on health can be observed using four models. These include materialist model, behavioural model, life-course model and psycho-social model (Haralambos & Van Krieken, 2000). The policy interventions should focus on addressing specific issues affecting a social class, gender or ethnic group. Materialistic model postulates that poor people are prone to risky health life because of the residential areas, and poor diets. Dump housing and air pollution are the major health hazards of the people from low social class (Black, 2011). For instance, children living in dump houses are prone to respiratory conditions. Similarly, the social class influence provision of the welfare state because the government policies focus on low social class groups who are in need of school meals among others. Life-Course Model claims that the human health is a reflection of aggregate social, biological and psycho-social experiences accumulate throughout someone’s life (Black, 2011). For example, the persons were exposed to poor housing conditions during their childhood are probable to face occupational challenges in their future lives. The behavioural model claims that some factors prevalent in social classes could either promote or damage the health of people belonging to certain categories (Haralambos, & Van Krieken, 2000). For instance the choice of diet, drug abuse, leisure time access to immunisation antenatal care and contraceptives are related to social classes. Those in poor social class are more likely to engage in smoking and drug abuse thus resulting to poor health (Sines, et al., 2013). Furthermore, because of poor eating habits those in low social class may become obese for eating cheap junk food. Psychosocial –social model points out that social class can cause psychological issues such as stress that in turn exposes people to health problems such as heart attack Nolan, 2001) For instance, people in high class are prone to psycho-social issues because of the autonomy they enjoy at their workplace. Similarly, those in low class are subject to too much pressure from the bosses, poor pay and inability to balance between work and life hence they can suffer psychological problems. 2.2: Theories and Explanations of Health Inequalities The unfair dissimilarities of people’s health between different groups of people from diverse social classes constitute health inequalities. These disparities occur in various dimensions such as social class, income, ethnicity, etc. (Nolan, 2001). The health inequalities exhibit similar characteristics observed in a particular social group and persisted over a long time. The understanding of health inequality theories has many significances because it can suggest approaches for mitigating the consequences or causes of variation. The studies of 1980s in Britain established four theories of social inequality such as social and natural selection, artefact, behaviours and structural factors Nolan, 2001). The analyses of each of these theories will provide some idea about the causes of social unfairness. Artefact Theory This theory suggests that the relationship between indicators of social status and health outcome represents statistical artefacts linking establishing the classification of social ranks over time. The drawback of this theory is that even when diverse measures of social ranks have been applied such as in education, income, occupational group, etc. (Sines, et al., 2013). There are still significant inequalities in the health outcomes. The implication of observations of this theory is that inequalities may not have any relationship with social status. Even so, some improvements in social status can still be made to reducing inequality. Structural Theory This theory proposes that the causes of health inequalities in health outcome is the disparity among the social, economic circumstances among different social classes based on wealth, power, income, the environment, etc. (Nolan, 2001). This theory is backed by the current observations that inequalities in health outcome are diminishing as a result of a decline in structural inequalities while they arise whenever there is an increase in inequality. Similarly, whenever the community is given more resources, there is an improvement in the health of the community. Furthermore, people with more wealth live healthy lives compared to poor people. Also, the power imbalance in the society results to disparities in the health outcome of the society (Nolan, 2001). Therefore, these issues can be addressed by reducing structural differences such as by providing resources and equal opportunities to the community. Cultural and Behavioural Theory This theory makes several observations of the causes of health inequalities. For instance, the behavioural differences related to diet, smoking, consumption of alcohol, physical exercises, etc. results in health inequalities (Nolan, 2001). The studies have related some cultural patterns among the poor people to a poor health outcome. In other words, the poor people engage in behaviour patterns that can be termed destructive thus exacerbating their health conditions resulting to inequality of health outcome. This theory also suggests that the withdrawal of government provision is essential to make the poor responsible for the behaviour. It is in support of the recent reforms implemented in the welfare state (Black, 2011). Therefore, solutions to health inequalities are rooted in the culture or the human action. The solution to address such inequalities rests with the people themselves in the way they behave. Selection Theory The theory claims that the observed poor health and low social ranks are as a result of selection by poor health. This reverses the other studies that imply low social status and poor health are the cause of the inequality health outcome (Sines, et al., 2013). However, this theory does not provide a convincing observation of inequalities of health outcome. The health inequalities theory provides mechanisms for addressing inequalities of health outcome in the society. A combination of various approaches such as political and socio-economic measure are vital for solving the issues of inequalities in the society (Sines, et al., 2013). Conclusion The origin of British Welfare State traced to Elizabethan reign in which following the introduction of Poor Law in 1601 to address issues welfare issues at local level. This was the awakening of the state to address the issues of the poor people and rekindles their hope of to live. The process continued until the time it got a backing of the industrial revolution that called for transformations to ensure the needs of the poor were recognised and addressed by the government. The industrial and economic revolutions had a significant influence on the British community in since the late 18th century. The changes in land use, the creation of raw goods, technological changes in manufacturing and use of machinery, etc. contributed to the welfare state of the community. The welfare state has gained massive support socially, politically and economically with the introduction of various reforms to improve the quality of social services. The implementation of reforms led to the introduction of the workhouse to influence people engages in work to get the provision. It changed the attitude of the people towards paucity, and this led to the stigmatization of those receiving benefits because the public perceived poverty and dependence as disgraceful. The legal transformation led to revolutions of the work environment for factory employees. Such reforms involved legal enforcement on child labour and ten-hour day. The Act was in favour of women and children as well as health and safety regulations, employees’ compliance with educational classes during working period. Principally, during this period the state bureaucracies were lessening though the influence of liberal party reduced the government’s participation. The direct response to political, economic and social factors posits conglomerate of aspects that led to the expansion of welfare state in UK. The party’s ideals and long-term goals propelled the economic and social policies. The concept focused on maintenance of employment suggested the possibility of making the unemployment of an individual for a continuous duration of 26 weeks an occasional occurrence under ordinary situations. Another observation was that the high rate of unemployment would make conditional training impossible. Various theories have supported the development of welfare states such as Marxism, liberalism and neoliberalism. To examine the effects of the welfare state in the society and health inequality outcomes various theories and models have been used. The models and theories are significant for helping the state to provide relevant intervention to achieve desired outcome. List of References Beveridge W. 1942, Social Insurance and Allied Services, London; His Majestys Stationery Office. Available at; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/19_07_05_beveridge.pdf Black, J. 2011, Overview: Britain from 1945 Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/overview_1945_present_01.shtml Carers (Recognition and Services) Act (1999) Carer and Disabled Children’s Act (2000) The Family Allowance Act (1945) Development Act (1909) Forbes-Burford J., Sines, D. & Saunders, M. 2013, Community Health Care Nursing, John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 392. George, V. 2003, Social Security: Beveridge and After, Volume 189 Psychology Press. Pp. 258. Haralambos, V. K, & Van Krieken, R. 2000, Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. Pearson Education Australia. Pp.  729 Labour Exchange Act of 1909 Nolan, Y., 2001, Care: S/NVQ Level 3: Candidate Handbook The National Insurance Act (1946) The National Health Service Act (1946) The National Assistance Act (1948) The Old-Age Pensions Act (1908) Read More