How successfully did the Liberal Reforms 1906-14 meet the social needs of the British people?

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Liberal Reforms.

How successfully did the Liberal Reforms 1906-14 meet the social needs of the British people?

  The Liberal Reforms between 1906 and 1914 partly met the social needs of the British people however problems remained. In the early 1900s, many people in Britain were suffering greatly from poverty and deprivation which indicated to the government that reform was needed to improve this. This meant that the government were taking a much more interventionist approach, moving away from 19th century laissez-faire policy. This meant that those most in need in the country who were at a disadvantage were given a lot of support which helped to meet many of their social needs. However the reforms had many limitations which some would argue limit the success of them and therefore would argue that the social needs were not entirely met, leaving many in deprivation.

  Before the Liberal reforms, many children came to school hungry, dirty, with infestations of lice or suffering from ill health and poor physical health. In 1907 the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act was passed which introduced medical inspections for school children. Children were given thorough health inspections to check their well being, including general condition and circumstances, oral inspection and eye examinations. Through these inspections, the government discovered that children were going untreated because of the poverty of their parents, putting them under pressure to aid these families. This lead to the Board of Education giving grants to local authorities for treatment and school clinics were set up for the first time. This meant that children were finally receiving treatment that they otherwise could not afford, therefore meeting some of their social needs. When further targeting this problem of unhealthy children the Education (Scotland) Act of 1908 was passed. This gave school boards power to take action against parents who allow their children to go to school in a filthy or verminous condition. This further improved the lives of many children, meaning less were suffering from poor health through fault of their parents. Despite these reforms, T. Ferguson states that 55% of children still were not receiving treatment for illnesses and many others had treatment that was inadequate. Therefore it is clear that the reforms passed by the Liberals helped to target ill health in children, however the reforms were limited and problems still existed.

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  In the late 17th century many old people were incapable of work due to old age which resulted in large-scale poverty amongst them. Lloyd George was interested in this area for a long time, due his time spent studying the scheme set up in Germany. In order to tackle this, the Liberals passed the Old Age Pensions Act in 1908 which

entitled those over 70 with an annual income of £21 - £31 to weekly pension of between 1 and 5 shillings. Due to this, by 1914, nearly a million people applied for pension. This showed the immense popularity ...

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