This essay will begin by explaining what social policy is, briefly identifying the history behind it. In order to demonstrate why there is a policy emphasis on Early Intervention, there will be a focus on the underpinning values and assumptions of the different political parties, whilst analysing factors that influence social policy such as media influence, social constructions of children, young people and families, government spending and evidence based research. The implications of this on different types of services will be examined by identifying the impact of early intervention on priority funding, restructuring and retraining workforces and stigmatisation. Also different government priorities and varying implications on the same service provisions across the UK will be considered, as well as the effects of labelling and exclusion resulting from early intervention. Finally the diversity of children's experiences will be discussed.
Social policy deals with social issues, through local and national government guidelines, principles and legislation. Therefore politics influences social policy, which determines the services of our welfare state. The post-war 1942 Beveridge Report was significant in developing social policy in the UK with the introduction of health reforms based on universality and the ideology of a social democratic welfare state. Fundamentally the state took responsibility for the welfare of children and families. Conservatives were in power from 1979-1997, during which they sought to change public reliance on the state through encouraging them to take more responsibility for their own welfare, by reducing the provision of state services. When Labour came in to power in 1997, they attempted to find a balance between state and market provision. At the end