Social Policy Underprivileged Children
The term social policy refers to a set of guidelines, policies, legislation, principles and activities that essentially affect human welfare. The development of these policies comes from within the communities; the policies need to develop to meet the needs, welfare and wellbeing of the population, from local government to national government (Alcock 2003).
Social policy was introduced after the Second World War; there was a desperate need for key public services at this time. In its very early days it was based on William Beveridges (1942) report on the ‘five giants’, disease, idleness, ignorance, squalor and want. According to Beveridge (1942) to tackle these problems would be essential to the reconstruction of society after the war. But are the policies that have …show more content…
been made benefitting the population and are they solving the problems they were intended to, or are hidden giants such as sexism and racism (which the welfare state had failed to address) key to the continuation of the problems that are present in modern day society (Spicker 2013).
The social problems that are visible throughout society today include family change and lone parents, homelessness, income and wealth, alcohol and drug misuse, crime disorder and community safety and caring and dependency. These are many but a few of the social problems that modern day people are dealing with (May et al 2007).
Administration of the welfare state has seen two major shifts in previous years, the first spreading over the 1960’s and 1970’s. These changes controlled public expenditure by the treasury, government planned to do this through economic planning and managerial efficiently. The next change occurred over the 1980’s and 1990’s and consisted of three main elements;
The division of agencies, this allowed each sector to be analysed separately, examples of this include the National Health Service Trusts and Social Security.
The introduction of agencies being ran like businesses with managers.
‘Quasi Markets’ the strongest pattern has been found in the Health and Social Care Sector where there is growing competition between markets.
In 1945 the labour government introduced three new key points which would mould the way society is today. In 1946 there was the National Insurance act which implemented the social security scheme from Beveridge’s report; also in 1946, the National Health Service act came into light. Then later in 1948, (abolishing the poor law) the National Assistance act making new provisions for the welfare services. Another important element to this stage in social policy was the Children’s act in 1948 (Spicker 2013).
There are so many social problems and the policies to go with it, take for example poverty; there are policies that help people who are currently in poverty such as benefits, housing, tax exemption but not long following the policies come more problems such as homelessness, debt, social exclusion, underprivileged children which have their policies on free school dinners and milk at schools, free hours at nursery from the age of two and a better education for children.
However, social exclusion is often linked to mental health issues and underprivileged children may suffer with ill health, so the National Health Service policy, and the children’s act could solve these problems but the pattern clearly shows that not one problem can be solved by one policy, because of the complexity of each individuals problem there may be need for a multitude of policies working together to make progression, otherwise the pattern of problems just goes on and on. Policies such as housing benefit cuts are a prime example of a policy that is promoting saving the economy money but the flip side is people have less money to live on because of higher rent or having to move their families to a cheaper area (May et al
2001).
Continuing to look at poverty and low income, the ‘poverty trap’ is a major issue for the underprivileged; once you are poor you are forced to stay poor. All the time a citizen is earning a low wage the state will provide benefits to help boost the annual income, but as soon as the wage rises the benefits are cut and the working citizen finds them self in a ‘trap’ which cannot be broken (Alcock 2003).
There are so many social problems that are constantly high-lighted by Politian’s or in the media such as homelessness, young people committing suicide, domestic violence, drug addictions, even trouble between neighbours, theft and other crimes-these should be recognised not as the social problems but a result of the economic damage that these communities have faced, the problems may never get solved if the fundamental causes are not addressed first (May et al 2001).
References
Alcock, P. 2003. Social Policy In Britain. Houndmills: Palgrave.
May, M. Page, R. Brunsdon, E. 2001. Understanding Social Problems Issues In Social Policy. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford.
Spicker, P. 2013. Social Policy In The UK. [Online] Robert Gordon University Aberdeen. Available from: www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/uk.htm. [10 November 2013]
Social policy was introduced after the Second World War; there was a desperate need for key public services at this time. In its very early days it was based on William Beveridges (1942) report on the ‘five giants’, disease, idleness, ignorance, squalor and want. According to Beveridge (1942) to tackle these problems would be essential to the reconstruction of society after the war. But are the policies that have …show more content…
been made benefitting the population and are they solving the problems they were intended to, or are hidden giants such as sexism and racism (which the welfare state had failed to address) key to the continuation of the problems that are present in modern day society (Spicker 2013).
The social problems that are visible throughout society today include family change and lone parents, homelessness, income and wealth, alcohol and drug misuse, crime disorder and community safety and caring and dependency. These are many but a few of the social problems that modern day people are dealing with (May et al 2007).
Administration of the welfare state has seen two major shifts in previous years, the first spreading over the 1960’s and 1970’s. These changes controlled public expenditure by the treasury, government planned to do this through economic planning and managerial efficiently. The next change occurred over the 1980’s and 1990’s and consisted of three main elements;
The division of agencies, this allowed each sector to be analysed separately, examples of this include the National Health Service Trusts and Social Security.
The introduction of agencies being ran like businesses with managers.
‘Quasi Markets’ the strongest pattern has been found in the Health and Social Care Sector where there is growing competition between markets.
In 1945 the labour government introduced three new key points which would mould the way society is today. In 1946 there was the National Insurance act which implemented the social security scheme from Beveridge’s report; also in 1946, the National Health Service act came into light. Then later in 1948, (abolishing the poor law) the National Assistance act making new provisions for the welfare services. Another important element to this stage in social policy was the Children’s act in 1948 (Spicker 2013).
There are so many social problems and the policies to go with it, take for example poverty; there are policies that help people who are currently in poverty such as benefits, housing, tax exemption but not long following the policies come more problems such as homelessness, debt, social exclusion, underprivileged children which have their policies on free school dinners and milk at schools, free hours at nursery from the age of two and a better education for children.
However, social exclusion is often linked to mental health issues and underprivileged children may suffer with ill health, so the National Health Service policy, and the children’s act could solve these problems but the pattern clearly shows that not one problem can be solved by one policy, because of the complexity of each individuals problem there may be need for a multitude of policies working together to make progression, otherwise the pattern of problems just goes on and on. Policies such as housing benefit cuts are a prime example of a policy that is promoting saving the economy money but the flip side is people have less money to live on because of higher rent or having to move their families to a cheaper area (May et al
2001).
Continuing to look at poverty and low income, the ‘poverty trap’ is a major issue for the underprivileged; once you are poor you are forced to stay poor. All the time a citizen is earning a low wage the state will provide benefits to help boost the annual income, but as soon as the wage rises the benefits are cut and the working citizen finds them self in a ‘trap’ which cannot be broken (Alcock 2003).
There are so many social problems that are constantly high-lighted by Politian’s or in the media such as homelessness, young people committing suicide, domestic violence, drug addictions, even trouble between neighbours, theft and other crimes-these should be recognised not as the social problems but a result of the economic damage that these communities have faced, the problems may never get solved if the fundamental causes are not addressed first (May et al 2001).
References
Alcock, P. 2003. Social Policy In Britain. Houndmills: Palgrave.
May, M. Page, R. Brunsdon, E. 2001. Understanding Social Problems Issues In Social Policy. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford.
Spicker, P. 2013. Social Policy In The UK. [Online] Robert Gordon University Aberdeen. Available from: www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/uk.htm. [10 November 2013]