In what ways did the Welfare legislation of the late 1940's mark a sea change in both attitudes and the provision of welfare services in Britain?

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Nicci Waterfield                Health & Social Care (MH)

In what ways did the Welfare legislation of the late 1940’s mark a sea change in both attitudes and the provision of welfare services in Britain?

There is a lot of argument about when the Welfare state started; my personal view is that the ideology started in 1906 with the Liberal Reforms.  When the Liberals came to power in 1906 attitudes were beginning to change, the Liberal politicians believed that something had to be done by the government to help the poor, the old and the unemployed.  Seebohm Rowntree and Charles Booth both carried out detailed investigations into poverty and what impact it was having on the population, their studies both showed that times were very bad for the poor, with was making life intolerable for them.  They struggled with poor housing, poor health, bad diet and just feeding the family was a never-ending struggle.  With these findings it was very clear to all that things needed to change, what also convinced them was that when the Boer war had started in 1899, the men who had volunteered to join the army to fight, around 50% of the potential recruits were found to be unfit.  

In 1906 the Liberals passed the school meals act, this allowed local authorities to provide every child at school with a free hot meal, helping to provide a more satisfactory diet for school age children.  Then in 1907 an act to carry out medical inspections at school was passed, this helped with the poor health that was affecting the children.  In 1908 they introduced Old Age Pensions, this subsequently helped poverty within the old, also in 1909 the Liberals, introduced Labour Exchanges, this was a place were unemployed people could seek work within their local area.  Also in 1909 they introduced the Housing and Town Planning Act, this act enabled local authorities to pull down run down housing that was beyond repair.  The last act to be passed by the Liberals in 1911, was the National Insurance Act, this was done in two parts.

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Even with all the work done by the Liberals during their time in power, there were still serious problems, which needed to address.  The Welfare legislation of the late 1940’s was helped by William Beveridge identifying that there were 5 great giants that was were stopping the nation from growing into a prosperous place to live.  These 5 giants where: -

Want

Idleness

Disease

Ignorance

Squalor

The terminology that is used in common day English today translates to: -

Poverty

Unemployment

Sickness/NHS

Education

Housing

Beveridge stated that we needed to change the ideology based on ...

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