The Liberal Reforms 1906-14

Learning Intention

• To be able to discuss the background to the Liberal Reforms 1906-14.

Intro

• Throughout the 19th Century, poverty became a massive problem in Britain.

• As you have studied, the Liberal Government came to power in 1906 and decided to introduced a number of reforms (changes) in order to help the poor people in Britain.

Why?

• There were several reasons why the Liberals introduced reforms.• The reports of Booth and Rowntree highlighted how bad poverty

was in Britain and showed that it was not simply the individual’s fault for being in poverty. New Liberals who wanted to improve the lives of those in poverty used these reports as evidence to persuade others in Government that reform and state intervention was needed.

• However, others argue that there were more cynical reasons for introducing reforms. Poverty was affecting Britain’s ability to fight wars and remain an economic power. Some also argue that they had to appear sympathetic to the poor to combat the rise of the Labour party.

Effectiveness of the reforms

• Regardless of the reasons behind the reforms, we are now interested in the reforms themselves.

• Did the Liberal reforms effectively tackle the issue of poverty in Britain?

• Your job will be to weigh up the positive and negative points of the reforms and come to a conclusion on whether they were effective or not.

Welfare State

• With your partner, write down as many ideas as you can about what a ‘Welfare state’ is.

Welfare state :

a system whereby the state undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits

Welfare State

• The UK is now referred to as a ‘Welfare state’• Every UK citizen has access to pensions,

sickness and unemployment insurance/benefits, a comprehensive and free health service and a fully developed education system in which.

• Some argue that the beginning of Britain’s transformation into a ‘Welfare state’ began with the Liberal reforms.

Liberal Reforms

• The Liberals introduced reforms to help the most vulnerable groups in society. These groups were :

• The young• The old • The sick• The unemployed

Assessment of reforms

• You will be looking at the policies the Liberals created to help each of these groups.

• In your essay, you must explain what was done to help each of these groups and outline the positive and negative points of each reform – ie did these changes effectively help this group, keeping them out of poverty. Or could the Liberals have done more/gone further to help this group.