Studied by 1 person
Define Social Policy
Refers to the plans and actions of the government agencies such as the health and social services, the welfare benefits system, schools and other public bodies
Cross Cultural Family Policy - China
- one-child policy aimed to curb rapid population growth to support economic dev + resource sustainability
- caused gender imbalance -> pref for boys, ageing population w/ fewer workers + human rights concerns (forced abortions + sterilisations)
- reduced population growth BUT created long-term demographic + economic challenges -> policy relaxation allowing more children
Cross Cultural Family Policy - Nazi Germany
Encouraged the 'master race' to reproduce (by restricting contraception and abortion)
Supported women to adopt the expressive role
The state sterilised 375,000 disabled people who were 'unfit to reproduce'
Cross Cultural Family Policy - Communist Romania
Introduced policies to drive up the birth rate
Restricted contraception and abortion
Set up infertility treatment centres
Made divorce more difficult
Lowered legal age for marriage to 15
Made unmarried adults and childless couples pay 5%extra income tax
How does the government view the family?
- Many state policies are formed around a dominant family ideology - dominant set of beliefs and images about family life, family structure and relationships which suggests what the perfect or best form of family is
- Most often linked with Functionalist and New Right views of the nuclear family
- All major political parties express the importance of the family
- Seen as the bedrock of social stability, providing shelter and security for children
- Family breakdown is also blamed for wider social problems (e.g. teen pregnancy, educational failure, welfare dependency, poverty, crime + drug abuse)
- Barrett and Macintosh: dominant family ideology = patriarchal + harmful
- Patriarchal - limiting the opportunities of women and encouraging the traditional expressive role
- Harmful - suggests that those living outside of a nuclear family are deviant. Shows heteronormativity and promotion of strengthening the stereotypical cereal packet family
What influenced each government's perspective on family policy? (AO1)
- conservative: influenced by NR + Neoliberalism = economic views of NR - low taxes, low benefits, minimal state intervention in economy
- coalition: less influence from NR + embraced social liberalism = acceptance of gender equality + family diversity - focus on supporting + controlling families
- labour: mixture of policies influenced by NR + those which supported family diversity/state intervention into family - more cuts to family benefits
Types of Family Policies (AO1)
1. Those aimed at providing direct material support for families - cash benefits, tax credits, Child Maintenance
2. Those to help parents balance the demands of paid employment, family life and support children - maternity and paternity leave, early years childcare, sure start
Conservative Party 1979-1990 - Thatcher (AO1/2)
- ideal family: Thatcher advocated eradication of homosexuality = norm in schools, preventing LA's + schools from teaching this as an acceptable sexuality (Section 28)
- child benefits: Defined divorce = social problem; view held by NR + emphasis continued responsibility of parents for their children after divorce
- care in community: state encouraged families to take responsibility for elderly + long-term sick + disabled; Female members carry this burden of care -> less likely to work full time + more likely to be economically dependent of men
- 1984 Matrimonial & Family Proceedings Act - divorce obtainable after 1 year
Conservative Party 1990 - 1997 John Major AO1
- 'It is time to return to those core values, time to get back to basics: to self-discipline and respect for the law, to consideration for others, to accepting responsibility for yourself and your family, and not shuffling it off on other people and the state.'
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Conservative Party 1990-1997 John Major AO1/2
- The Child Support Act/Agency (1991/1993): track down absent parent through information provided by former partner; Refusal to cooperate meant financial penalties; Closed down in 2006 = didn't always enforce decisions and placed women in vulnerable situations due to pressure to provide information
- 1991 Marital rape: made it illegal for a spouse to rape his/her partner
- Back to Basics Campaign (1993): targeted lone parent families to reduce their state dependency by making the family more self reliant; supported by the Child support agency
AO3 Evaluation of Conservative Policies
- Allen (1985) policies discourage cohabitation + one-parent families
- Harding (1996): best council housing is allocated to married couples with children.
- Child benefit for mothers: fact that mothers are given child benefits + awarded custody reinforces their nurturing role
AO1 Judge - Public Spending
- found between 1999-2011: no. of children in poverty = reduced by 900,000
- Public Spending in the 20th century is dominated by the great exertions of the world wars. But peacetime expenditures show clear trends.
AO1 Judge - Prior to WW1
- Prior to World War I, public spending sat at about 15 percent of GDP. Then, after the war it emerged at about 27 to 30 percent of GDP, and remained at about that level, except for a surge at the start of the depression in the 1930s.
AO1 Judge - Post War Economic Boom
- Post War Economic Boom: After World War II, public spending consumed about 35 percent of GDP, and this level continued through the 1950s. At about 1960 expenditures began a steady rise that peaked in the early 1980s at over 45% of GDP.
AO1 Judge - Margaret Thatcher and Neoliberalism (Lowering Government spending and encouraging free market economics)
- Margaret Thatcher and Neoliberalism (Lowering Government spending and encouraging free market economics): During the 1980s public spending was cut as a percent of GDP from about 45 percent down to 34 percent in 1989. But then, with the ERM sterling crisis and associated recession, it rose back to 40 percent of GDP before declining to 35 percent in 2000.
Ao1 Judge - Third Way
Third Way: After 2000 public spending increased rapidly, with a peak of 44.9 percent of GDP in 2011 in the afermath of the financial crisis of 2008, followed by a slow decrease to 40.6 percent GDP in 2016 and a projected 38.8 percent GDP by 2020.
- £569.0 billion in 2020-21, an increase of £153.3 billion or 36.9 per cent on the previous year in nominal terms.
AO1 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007
- NL accept that family does not have to be the heterosexual married couple
- Focus on social injustice + trying to improve life opportunities to working class families esp children + their safety
- Introduced minimum wage
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - The New Deal (1998)
helping lone parents return to work with training and financial support
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - Sure Start (2000)
- designed to deliver a place in every community that would provide integrated care and services for young children and their families, with a particular focus on closing the achievement gap for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Also provided 5.5 days free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds
- Longer maternity- 3 months unpaid leave for both parents and the right to seek time off for family reasons
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - Working Family Tax Credit (2003)
- Tax credits are payments from the government which do not get taxed.
- If you're responsible for at least one child or young person, you may qualify for Child Tax Credit to get some relief on childcare costs.
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - Every Child Matters (2004)
after victoria climbe abuse case increased safeguarding and child protection
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - Civil Partnerships (2004)
Legally recognised union formed by signing of civil partnership schedule in presence of 2 witnesses + civil partnership registrar
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - Child Tax Credit (2003)
- paid straight to mother
- Finch argues that giving this money to the mother it is more likely to be spent on children
AO2 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - National Minimum Wage (1999)
- 1998 National Minimum Wage Act
- provided for establishment of a Low Pay Commission = now sets Britain's first ever National Minimum Wage (NMW)
- first: £3.60/h for adults over 22 (1.2 mil adults who had avg pay rise of 10%)
- now: £9.18 for 21-22
- National Living Wage: £9.50
AO1 New Labour and the Third Way 1997-2007 - Fletcher
- takes functionalist stance + claims such policies = positive -> support family in performing its functions more effectively
what type of families did their policies support? AO3
- Joint conjugal as well as alternatives to the conventional heterosexual nuclear family
- Tony Blair was also accused of modeling family life on the nuclear family and in many of his policies he identified lone parents and gay families as not being 'strong families'
- New Labour (similarly to the Conservative government) claimed that a decline in the amount of nuclear families led to the emergence of social problems such as teenage pregnancies and educational underachievement
- Silva and Smart - NL rejected NR view that the family should just have one male earner
- Leonard - policies appear to promote gender equality but really promote patriarchy
AO2 Victoria Climbe
- born 1991, suffered severe abuse by her aunt and her partner after moving to London in 1999.
- Despite multiple hospital visits + reports of injuries, authorities failed to intervene effectively.
- died in February 2000 with 128 injuries, prompting the largest review of UK child protection systems.
AO2 Baby P
- 2006, endured months of abuse from his mother, her boyfriend, and their accomplice.
- Authorities missed critical signs of abuse despite warnings + visible injuries.
- died in August 2007, 17 months -> to widespread criticism of child protection failings.
New Labour 2007-2010 AO1/2
2007 - Aimed to increase retirement age by 2020 to 65 years for both men and women (previously, 60 for women, and 65 for men) - current retirement age is 66 but will increase to 68 by 2026
2008: Children's Trust Board - since Baby P, increased government role in child protection
2008: Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) - new powers to make non resident parent pay an assessed contribution
2009 embryology act - recognising lesbians and their partners are parents in cases of IVF
2010: Paid maternity/adoption leave rose from 39 weeks to 52 weeks
2010: Equality Act - protected characteristics identified and legislation to prevent discrimination in public and private sphere
AO3 Analysis New Labour Policies
Focus of this government? - restoring balance - state to be responsible for those struggling
Coalition Government 2020-2015 AO1
Composed of conservative and lib dems - coalition members argued that society should be 'family friendly' because 'strong families of all kids are the bedrock of a strong and stable society'
Coalition expressed anxiety about the family life in the UK and the so-called broken families which many conservatives blamed for the London riots
Because of 2008-200 financial crisis, Coalition's financial austerity policies reflected the new right desire to cut public spending in an attempt to reduce the national debt. However, it simply made the poor worse off
Reed (2012) predicted that by 2015, austerity measures would result in 120,000 more workless families, 25,000 more families with a mother suffering from depression and 40,000 more families living in overcrowded or poor quality accommodations.
Coalition Gov 2010-2015 AO2 Troubled families programme (2012)
Following on from the 2011 riots, Cameron tried to focus policy on trying to help 'troubled families' by what he meant lone parent families without a father at home echoing to some extent Charles Murray's ideas on the 'underclass'.
Cameron introduced a small tax break for married couples suggesting support for conventional nuclear families. However, at the party conference in 2010, it was announced that Child Benefit would be stopped for families with higher rate taxpayers.
The six eligibility criteria for families are:
1 Families at risk of financial exclusion, including adults out of work;
2 Children not attending school regularly;
3 Parents and children with a range of health problems;
4 Children who need help or are in need or subject to a child protection plan;
5 Families affected by domestic abuse; and
6 Adults or children involved in crime and anti-social behaviour.
The additional government funding of up to £165m will enable the current programme to continue until the end of 2020-21.
extends eligibility for the programme to expectant parents and it clarifies eligibility criteria to encourage local areas to prioritise families affected by child sexual exploitation, gang and knife crime and those at risk of homelessness.
350,105 - positive outcomes
Further analysis shows the most common problems faced by families were children needing help (88%), worklessness (58%) and health (48%).
Coalition Gov 2010-2015 AO2 - Capping child benefits
only 2 children
Coalition Gov 2010-2015 AO2 Triple lock system pension
pension rises by at least 2.5%
A triple lock was introduced to the UK state pension in 2010. It was a guarantee that the state pension would not lose value in real terms, and that it would increase at least in line with inflation. To make the guarantee even more secure, it included three separate measures of inflation (hence 'triple lock').
The three-way guarantee was that each year, the state pension would increase by the greatest of the following three measures:
Average earnings
Prices, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)
2.5 per cent
In other words, if average earnings were to increase by 3 per cent, the state pension would also increase by 3 per cent. But neither average earnings nor the CPI increase by more than 2.5 per cent, the state pension still rises by 2.5 per cent.
Thus if wage growth and price growth remain low, the state pension increases actually beat inflation - as has happened a lot in the years since the triple lock was put in place.
Coronavirus - some call to scrap it - wages have taken a cut and it is a large expense for the tax payer
coalition gov 2010-2015 ao2 marriage tax allowance
Your income is £11,500 and your Personal Allowance is £12,570, so you do not pay tax.
Your partner's income is £20,000 and their Personal Allowance is £12,570, so they pay tax on £7,430 (their 'taxable income'). This means as a couple you are paying Income Tax on £7,430.
When you claim Marriage Allowance you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your partner. Your Personal Allowance becomes £11,310 and your partner gets a 'tax credit' on £1,260 of their taxable income.
This means you will now pay tax on £190, but your partner will only pay tax on £6,170. As a couple you benefit, as you are only paying Income Tax on £6,360 rather than £7,430, which saves you £214 in tax.
Coalition gov 2010-15 ao2 - SPL
Introduced by Coalition government as an individualistic policy to enhance gender equality
Take up is low
TUC estimated that 40% of fathers would not qualify for SPL, which cannot be claimed by agency workers, those on zero-hours contracts and the self-employed.
The government estimates that take-up among eligible couples is between 2% and 8%, but Maternity Action's analysis of the figures estimates that take-up is only between 3% and 4%.
Fathers can get two weeks' paternity leave paid at £148.68 (although 24% don't qualify for it), compared with statutory maternity pay lasting 39 weeks for women, including six weeks of "enhanced pay". If couples qualify for SPL, the leave taken by the co-parent is often unpaid, unless they work for a company that offers enhanced benefits.
ao3 problem w/ coalition policies
Raising tuition fees = more inequality
Parenting orders = victim blaming
Targeting of particualr social groups e.g. troubled families
Reduction of childcare support - benefits nuclear family
Trying to follow NR ideology to prevent anti-social behaviour
ao3 contemporary policies
children of single mums are "producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children." Suggesting benefits cuts would deal with the problem of rising teen pregnancy rates, he wrote: "It must be generally plausible that if having a baby out of wedlock meant sure-fire destitution on a Victorian scale, young girls might indeed think twice about having a baby."
ao3 conservative policies post coalition
Supporting Families
Domestic Abuse Act 2021
Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2022
Universal Credit
