Development of Social Policy essays

Development of Social Policy essays The development of health care policy in the last one hundred years has been shaped by many factors. These factors are social, economic and political and include poverty, de-industrialisation and different political ideologies. Social attitudes changed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and were the main driving force for the development of health care policies. In the early 1900s attitudes were changing and people were becoming more aware of social conditions within the country. The Boer War and the two World Wars had shown politicians that the country was poor, unfit and extremely unhealthy. Unemployment was rising and more and more people were becoming dependant on help from the state. At this time we had the political influence of a Liberal Government whos ideals described as social democratic, would give rise to the health service. Social democratic ideals concerning health care were that care should be available on a needs basis rather than for those who could afford it and should be provided by the state. They believed that all people should be free from poverty. The social democrats thought that its people were the governments responsibility to look after. This ideology led to Labour exchanges and National Insurance being set up in 1911 to help those who were sick and out of work. Women were given the vote and they helped to hig hlight social conditions of the nation. Poverty was rife and was a drain on the economy, and was one of the main reasons the population was so unfit and unhealthy as we will see later. In 1942 Beveridge produced a report that was designed to counter the five social giants of idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want. The report was lengthy and considered the whole question of social insurance, arguing that want could be abolished by a system of social security organised for the individual by the state. Beveridge recommended the establishment of...