The Main Aim of Social Policy - Case Study Example

Introduction The main aim of social policy is to improve the welfare of the society. Social policy is the laid down rules, guidelines and legislationthat work towards the welfare of the society. Social policy covers a wider area within the social context and can also include political and economic issues. According to Balchin (2002, p. 106), it covers health care, criminal justice system as well as equality and education. It also deals with health policy, housing policy, education policy, economic (income) policy and family policy among other issues related to social welfare. William Beveridge identified five key problems that the society faces and stressed the need for elimination of the Giants as he called them. These vices include ignorance, squalor, idleness and disease. His report known as The Social Insurance and the Allied Services was published in 1942 and issued to parliament for consideration (Groves, Murie and Watson 2007). He had proposed the assistance of the working class to the dependent group of the society - those who are working are to save some amount of their salary to assist the needy people such as the unemployed, the sick, widows and widowers, retired and the orphans. By doing this, Beveridge was convinced that the welfare of the state would be met. However, this can not be achieved without proper social policy. Social policy is linked with legislation and social work practice intricately. Social policy is the result of input from various sectors of the society and usually entails wide consultations to address an issue in the society. This is then underpinned in law, thus bring in the legislation aspect. For instance, social services have statutory child care and protection roles which lead to involvement with homelessness and housing policy and legislation (Stewart and Stewart 1992, p. 76). According to the Department for Social Development (2011), social policy streamlines the law to reflect changing social attitudes and making it responsive to the society. Social workers not only need to operate within the law, but also understand social policy in their areas of practice in order to maintain social work values. Social policy also helps social workers to comprehend political and ethical questions on responsibility and also understand individual and societal rights (Krieger and Higgins 2002, p. 758). The current British housing and urban policy classifies housing according to tenure; owner occupation, housing from local authorities, registered social landlords and private rented housing. Contemporary UK has witnessed major shifts in these tenures; owner occupation has grown from 10% to 67% in terms of stock and private renting has fallen from 90% to 10%. Social housing has increased and fallen in the 20th century, growing to about a third and then being reduced to below a quarter (Spicker 2011). According to UK Housing Policy (2011), the current social housing system has failed the same people it was put in place to help. This indicates that there are serious housing problems in the UK, which forms the next part of this study. Homelessness is a huge problem facing the UK. According to its legal definition, homelessness covers a wide range of circumstances including; the total lack of accommodation; having unreasonable accommodation; having a legal right to accommodation one is unable to access; and lastly, living as a squatter (accommodation where one has no legal right to occupy) (Shelter 2007, p. 2). According to national statutory homelessness statistics, by the third quarter of 2011, there were 12,510 new applications for homeless duty which is 6 percent higher than in 2010. 49,100 households were in temporary accommodation as of September 2011. As most sociologists would argue, official homelessness figures do not capture the true picture of such situations, in this case ignoring individuals who qualify for the legal definition of homelessness but fail to apply to be classified as such. Hence, the concept of “hidden homeless” arises, whom according to Crisis (2011) number about 400,000 in the entire UK. Further analysis into country figures within the UK indicate that as of 2007, England had 99,500 homeless individuals while the figures for Scotland and Wales were 41,100 and 9,300 respectively. The general trend for homelessness in the UK indicates falling figures in England, increasing homelessness in Scotland (figures are a third higher than ten years ago) and sharp rises in Wales (Crisis 2011). Homelessness persists as a problem in the UK despite the nation’s wealth and global economic position. It also pervades despite the existence of laws to address it. Specifically, the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act of 1977- which places the responsibility of housing to “Local Authority Housing Departments to provide permanent accommodation for the homeless in priority need” (The National Archives 2011) - has failed to address the situation. This calls for examining the Act to establish its advantages and disadvantages and thus its efficacy. Upon analysis, the strengths of the Homeless Act 1977 lie in its clear definitions of homelessness and priorities of need. However, it fails to specify a strategy for addressing the issue of the hidden homeless. Its failure to effectively incorporate the role of homeless people social work is an oblivious oversight of a very important aspect of dealing with the issue of homelessness. The criteria for prioritisation can also be critiqued since it focuses on dependencies (children), emergencies (disasters), vulnerabilities (disabilities) and pregnancy (The National Archives 2011). This does not address the issue of unreasonable housing conditions that the majority of the poor sections of the society dwell. This view, together with the discrepancies in homelessness trends among the member countries of the UK is indicative of failure to address inequality. Strategies of addressing these weaknesses should inform future policy-making efforts on the homelessness problem. Social workers engaging in housing issues and homelessness receive guidance from the social policy and legislation in a number of ways. The policy provides a strategy for prioritisation of needs of the various categories of homeless people, which in turn greatly helps social practice. Further, the policy enables social workers to discern issues of responsibility for the homeless people, including the local authority and other arms of the government. However, as Stewart and Stewart (1992, p. 79) argue, intervention for the problem of homelessness has historically been housing oriented, with little regard to the social work aspect. The question thus is; what is the role of social work in addressing the problem of homelessness? According to participants of a forum by the Scottish Council for Single Homeless, social workers greatly need to be the gateways to resources rather than the gatekeepers (Cleghorn 2005, p. 3). In terms of prevention, Stewart and Stewart (1992, p. 80) cite the Codes of Guidance which emphasises the need for cooperation between the social work and housing departments. For instance, social services may provide rent guarantees to avoid evictions on the grounds of rent arrears. Social workers also play an important role in ensuring that the homeless receive temporary accommodation. They should as well ensure that people in temporary accommodation access important services such as education, health and security (Stewart and Stewart 1992, p. 87). There is a need for interdepartmental and inter-professional cooperation and consultation in order to effectively solve the problem of homelessness. One of the impacts of homelessness and poor housing is the debilitating impacts on the lives of children. For instance, Gwandure (2008) establishes that poor housing conditions have negative impacts on the child’s developmental disposition. In particular, housing problems force children to live in limited privacy which, in turn, affects their psychological functioning. The broader impacts of housing problems on children draw the legislation- Children’s Act- and social work policy into the discussion. Under the Children’s Act 2004 of UK (The National Archives 2011), every child has a right to physical and mental well being and protection from harm and neglect. Poor housing is thus in contradiction to the Children’s Act and would involve inter-departmental efforts to find a solution (Stewart and Stewart 1992, p. 89). In terms of determining social work practice with children, the impacts of housing problems especially homelessness on children influence the practice towards grounding on frameworks such as the attachment theory, the cognitive/behavioural theory and person-in-environment practice (Bailey 2001; Schofiled and Beek 2006). However, Stewart and Stewart (1992, p. 84) argue that in the Children’s Act the government has sought a distance between housing and social work so as to minimise conflicts. Proactive Child protection should be a top priority for social workers working with families under temporary accommodation (Stewart and Stewart 1992, p. 90). The government under the Prime Minister, David Cameron recently launched a strategy that aims at unlocking the housing market. The strategy is expected to assist 100,000 people acquire new mortgages (Hollander 2011). Renovations of the old homes will be started, and inequality will be reduced. Social housing tenants earning a higher salary would be required to pay more rent and the government will use the collected amount of money to renovate old houses and construct new ones (Duxbury 2011). The strategy also spells out the government’s commitment to avoid unnecessary regulation on the landlords but without sparing rogue landlords (Brown 2011). The current conservative government has embraced Thatcher’s Right-to-Buy policy. This is a brilliant move that will make the social housing occupier fulfill their dreams of owning houses. The former government of Gordon Brown did not offer them such opportunities. According to Shapps (2009), regular researches showed that a majority of social housing tenants were interested in owning houses but could not do so under the former government. The immediate former government was reluctant to build more houses despite the fact that construction of more housing was the priority. Social housing waiting list remained long. Housing tenures became affordable for only the rich people instead of all people. This caused more overcrowding in the small and temporary dwellings. Housing policy is not only concerned with the issue of housing ownership but also the distribution and the safety of individuals including citizens and non citizens (Holmans 1987). The government has also adopted the social housing strategy in its effort to address the housing shortage. The effectiveness of housing policy can be evaluated through a number of approaches; studying its formulation or assessing its ability to solve the problems the policy was established for. Basing on the first consideration, one notes that the policy clearly defines responsibilities for housing issues between the arms of government; for instance, the homeless are the responsibility of the local government. The policy also shifted from the Poor Law to Welfare in the 20th century in order to be more responsive to the society (Spicker 2011). However, the policy fails to address subtle but serious problems in homelessness; there is no strategy for dealing with the hidden homeless, alongside the gaping housing disparities and inequality among the UK member countries. This indicates that the formulation was not exhaustive and tailored to meet specific needs of different communities. A community needs assessment based on UK housing needs would reveal the problems discussed earlier; homelessness, poor housing conditions, social exclusion, public health issues, children developmental issues and refugee housing problems (Jones 2001; UK Housing Policy 2001; Housing Rights Information 2012). This indicates that housing policy fails as a social policy to address societal needs. Conclusion Social policy refers to the guidelines and legislation that work towards the welfare of the society. Social policy covers health related issues, employment, education, housing and criminal justice among others. Housing policy is one of the social policies that have undergone extensive development in the history of UK under different governments as elaborated above. Social housing is central to UK housing policy which is based on tenure. However, housing problems and their broad effects continue to impact UK society. These include heightened homelessness and social exclusion alongside compounding other problems such as children and public health issues. Thus, the current housing policy in the UK needs to be more responsive to achieve the objectives of safe, sanitary, affordable and accessible housing to all. References Bailey, V 2001, “Cognitive–behavioural therapies for children and adolescents”, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, vol. 7, pp. 224-232. Balchin, PN, Rhoden, M 2002, Housing policy: An introduction, 4th edn, Routledge, London. Brown, C 2011, Strategy: private landlord regulation unnecessary, viewed 22nd December 2011, . 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