"What aspects of family change since the 1960's have had the most important implications for Social Policy?"

The first 200 words of this essay...

"What aspects of family change since the 1960's have had the most important implications for Social Policy?"

Perhaps the most important feature of the family within British Society, as Allen noted in a recent publication, is that there is "nothing set about the family as such" (Allen G and Crow G, 2001, p20). Indeed, ever since the dawn of industrialisation several hundred years ago, the demands made on family forms due to the continuing effects of demographic change have ensured that family forms are continually evolving and advancing. This has been especially true within the past 50-or-so years, as the period has witnessed some vast social reconstruction's in terms of marriage patterns, divorce rates, numbers of elderly people etc.., which have had a profound effect on the family. This essay will look at these developments, and examine them in relation to recent Labour and Conservative governments social policies on the family.

One of the changes that has influenced family life and has grown dramatically since the 1960's is that of divorce. In 1964 there were 34,868 divorces per year in England; however by 1972 this had dramatically increased to 119, 025 (www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase). This was due largely