What will they ask you in the exam?

•How far did the Labour welfare reforms 1945-51 meet the needs of the British people?

•How successful were the welfare reforms of the Labour Government in improving social conditions in Britain?

•“The social reforms of the Labour government of 1945-51 were successful in establishing a welfare state” Do you agree?

•How effective were the social reforms of the Labour government in dealing with the problems facing Britain at the time?

•How true is it to say that the Labour government of Britain 1945-51 set up a welfare state?

You decide what you are going to argue:-

•They met the needs of the people and solved most of the problems at the time.

•Kenneth Morgan, Henry Pelling.

•They set up the principles of a welfare state, but in office didn’t meet all the needs of the people / set up welfare state, but they improved conditions vastly and did this despite difficult times.

•They didn’t meet the needs of the people/ set up welfare state and were wrong to attempt welfare state at that time.

•Correlli Barnett

Your Argument• Labour was largely successful in meeting

the needs of the people/ solving the problems of the day……considering the monumental task they faced post ww2!

¼ of National Wealth GONE

ActivityIn your jotter, complete the following by using both textbooks:1.Describe pre-welfare state Britain 2.Give one sentence definition of a Welfare State.3. Give a description of each of the ‘giants’ as well as how the govt. tried to deal with them.

- Want, Disease, Squalor, Ignorance & Idleness

In 1942 Sir William Beveridge produced a report which identified the 5 great evils which were menacing the British people. He also set down his ideas on how these should be tackled.

The 5 evils were

•Squalor. Over 1 million slums existed before W.W.2. The housing shortage was exacerbated by no house building during the war (2/3rds of builders were in armed forces) and Hitler’s bombers destroying 700,000 homes. In Scotland by 1945 500,000 homes were needed.

•Want – People needed adequate income to remain out of poverty. In 1942 less than half the population were eligible for National Insurance. The rest had to rely on private friendly societies for insurance schemes or when in poverty rely on charity.

•Disease – People were not receiving adequate healthcare because it had to be paid for. Women and children especially missed out as it tended to be men which were covered by National Insurance sickness benefit. Hospital building were old and there was an uneven spread of G.Ps around the country.

•Ignorance – Children were denied proper education opportunities as the leaving age was 14 and secondary education was fee paying. War had damaged 5,000 schools and 20% of school stock.

•Idleness- Although there was low unemployment during the war, there was a fear of a return to the long dole queues of the 30s after the war. Near full employment would be needed if Britain were able to have a welfare scheme.

Education

What did Labour do? - Implemented 1944 Butler Education Act.

•This gave free compulsory secondary education for all. Leaving age raised to 15.

•Secondary schools divided into 3 types. Grammar, Secondary Modern and Technical.

•Children sat 11+ exam to determine their abilities and which secondary school would best suit their needs.

•Additional nursery and special education places were provided.

•Additional university places provided.

University

Grammar School/Technical School. 5 Years. sit Highers.

Sit 11+

Job

Secondary Modern. 3 years no qualifications

Sit 11+

Did this help?

•Free secondary education now a right for all. Children were now given access to secondary education which previously they had been denied.

•Trained 35,000 teachers in emergency 1yr teacher training scheme.

•Built 1,176 schools. BUT Didn’t really remove divisions.

•The 11+ was an unfair exam which was too young to decide a child’s entire future.

•There were only 20% of places given to Grammar schools and only 5% to Technical schools. It tended to be middle class children that went to Grammar schools, especially boys. While working class and girls went to Secondary Moderns.

( Implemented divisive system Education Minister Ellen Wilkinson and George Tomlinson despite demands from teachers and educationalists for comprehensives).

Again middle class benefited more than poor with removal of fees.

•The quality of education at Secondary Moderns were poor. Most financial aid was given to Grammar schools.

•Didn’t fully solve the building shortage.

•Despite making secondary compulsory out of 1176 schools built, 928 were primary -to cope with baby boom. Secondary schools still in old inadequate buildings and 7,000 temporary classrooms built. Struck by shortage of building materials.

•Correlli Barnett argues Labour should have concentrated on building more technical schools to help re-invigorate our flagging industries to provide long term help for Britain.

•Kenneth Morgan, normally complimentary of Labour reforms believes “it is hard to avoid the view that education was an areas where the Labour government failed to provide any new ideas or inspiration”.

•Education still remained divisive, although getting education, still not the one that met their needs.

Want - What did Labour do?

1946 Family Allowance – Labour continued this wartime policy. 25p per week was given to every child after first. Paid to mother.

1946 National Insurance – Compulsory scheme. Every one of working age contributed. Provided comprehensive coverage and benefit in time of need old age, illness, maternity. Designed to care ‘from the cradle to the grave’. £1.30 for single adult. £2.10 for couple.

1948 National Assistance – Safety net to help those who still needed help after N.I could provide lump sums or weekly benefit. Needs tested.

This helped

•National Insurance now compulsory scheme. Removed piecemeal system. A marked improvement from what existed before. Helping ‘cradle to the grave’. Benefits were given as a right!!!!!!

•Women helped especially as they had been most excluded from previous systems.

•Helped some pensioners, pensions now £1.30, increased for first time since 1920 when it was 50p.

•Seemed to combat poverty. Rowntree studied York in 1950 and found only 2% primary poverty as opposed 36% primary poverty in 1936.

Criticism

•Beveridge had said Family Allowance should be 40p per week and for every child,

•National Insurance benefits were inadequate. Contributions had to be low to accommodate everyone so benefits were low. Calculated in 1946 but not implemented till 1948 and fixed for 5 years. Didn’t rise with cost of living, people relying on benefit still found themselves in poverty. In 1948 benefit was 19% of an average weekly wage. Restrictions left people in poverty, for example you needed 156 contributions to receive sickness benefit and unemployed benefit only for between 180 and 492 days.

•Pensioners especially suffered. Inadequacies of NI revealed in up take of NA which was only supposed to be a safety Net.By 1949 2 million people were claiming NA and 48% of these were pensioners.

•NA was needs tested, although didn’t take into account of family members, people were often put off claiming as reminded them of humiliating means test in 1930s.

•People were better off than before Labour, but people were still living in poverty, especially pensioners.

Squalor

In election campaign Labour promised a home for every family. After W.W.I soldiers were promised ‘homes fit for heroes’ this never materialised and there were high demands now.

Labour took control of resources to help those most in need in short term but also planned long term solutions.

•Builders given priority when demobbing from armed forces.

•Government took control of scarce building resources. Licences needed to built – this is to ensure those that need it most.

•1945 continue building prefabs, to send to areas most in need. 157,000 built by 1948.

•Continued policy of subsidising council building schemes of 1946 and 1949.

•In 1946 20,000 people squatted in disused army shelters. Government made sure they received basic water and facilities.

•In long term, council houses were made larger, from 800sq feet to 1000sq and had bathrooms upstairs and down

•1946 New Towns Act set out plans for model communities with well planned houses and amenities and social facilities. 14 were built by 1951.

Deserve Praise

•Enormous effort deserve praise for helping those most in need as a result 4 out of 5 houses were built were councils. Rent control acts 1946 and 1949 kept council house rents low to help working class afford them.

• An average of 170,000 homes were built per year by 1951.By 1947 300,000 homes were built rising to 500,000 by 1951.

Deserve criticisms

•Despite election promise did not meet needs for home. 1951 census revealed 750,000 households still needed homes. Roughly the same level of homelessness as 30s.

•Timmins “Traditionally ,housing has been branded the welfare state failure of Bevan and the 1945 Labour Government”.

•House building record, although more than any other European country doesn't compare with conservative programmes in 50s.

•1951 37% of houses did not have plumbed baths, 8% didn’t have inside toilets.

•Should they have gone for quantity? Over quality? Kept houses 800sq feet and built more?

•However despite efforts were fighting losing battle.

•Scarce building resources in post war world. 1947 building programmes had to be cut back due to lack of timber. Increasing pressure on housing due to increase in marriage 10% and birth-rate 25% and divorce rate after W.W.2 leading to more demand for homes.

Idleness –

What did Labour do- careful planning

•Men conscripted after May 1939 were entitled to jobs back.

•Training was provided in 30 industries.

•Established a mixed economy. Still relied on private industry but introduced Nationalisation of 20% of industries E.g. Public transport, coal, electricity, Bank of England. Now run by government.

•Increase in exports by 75% guaranteed jobs.

Praise “the single most important domestic achievement of the labour government was the maintenance of full employment after the war “ Brooke.

•Real wage in 1949 was 20% higher than in 1938. Working people were better off.

• By 1946 unemployment at 2.5% Dalton the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequers claimed it was ‘the greeted revolution brought about by the labour government “.

•1951 253,000 unemployed. Created a mixed planned economy.

Criticism

•Only in harsh winter of 1947 did unemployment raise to near 1 million.

•Unemployment levels kept low by school leaving increasing.

•Do they deserve credit for the recovery? Most factors affecting employment war outwit their control.E.g World demand growing / All countries needed to restock after war.

•Addison “full employment was … the result of .. The boom in private investment after 195|”.

•Simpson argues both combined, government good success and favourable trends in world economy.

Disease – people needed access to health care.

Labour – 1946 NHS passes and introduced 5th July 1948

All people access to free health care, all services free e.g.. Dental care, eye care, maternity care.

Does this deserve praise

•Helped state of health. No of prescriptions rose from 7 million per month to 13.5 million per month in September 1948.

•Helped especially old, hearing, eye, dental care. Improved life of population. 5 million glasses given in first year and 8.5 million dental patients treated.

•Infant mortality dropped from 300 per million before to 48 per million.

•Bevan resisted idea of 2 tier system of making some pay according to income.

•Deserve criticism,

•Despite supposed free, the cost of NHS spiralled. By 1950 only 10% of NHS was paid by NI contribution. Money had to be raised by increasing taxes ( although no more than 5% of cost of NHS through taxes). Working class paid money through wage not at drs surgery.

•1951 prescription charges introduced. 5p per prescription.

•Official NHS historian Charles Webster argues that NHS did little to improve health conditions of working classes.

•Couldn’t build new health centres and hospitals due to scarce materials. Still gem in crown of welfare state.

What problems did Labour face while doing all these reforms

•Economy in ruins after W.W.2. US 1945 stops loans we face financial Dunkirk (Keynes). Lost ¼ of our national wealth in ww2.

•Britain lost 2/3rd of export trade in ww2.

•Still rationing

•Shortage of materials.

If it asks about ‘problems in Britain’. Then you could include this at end for A.

•The war had revealed massive problems in industry, poor management, old material, shortage of skilled worker.bad working practices.

•How well did they deal with this?

•Well they concentrated on building welfare state. To pay for welfare state they agreed to US loans which required us to maintain naval commitments ( cold war) Singapore and Africa, building atomic bomb.

•Ultimately cost us more to maintain this presence than loans. Desire to remain as world power meant spend scarce resources also on atomic bomb.

• Should they have spent this on building up economy? Or were they right to concentrate on welfare state?

Some quotes :-

1945 election campaign Michael Foot promised

“ Every citizen of England has a good roof over his head, the chance to marry and bring up his children, safe from the fears of unemployment, sickness and worry”. Nice to put in intro and refer to at conclusion. Did they achieve it?