The Birth of the British Welfare State 1945-51

The Birth of Britain as a Welfare State

• Welfare State Definition: An ideal model where the state provides comprehensive and universal welfare for its citizens.
• Historical Context: The welfare state wasn't solely a reaction to Nazi Germany; it had pre-war foundations.
• Key Stimulus: World War I, not II, was a major catalyst for welfare expansion in the 1920s.
• Post-WWII Reforms: The 'Beveridge era' saw significant reforms, including the National Assistance Act (1946), National Insurance Act (1948), Education Act (1944), and the National Health Service (1948).
• Objective: Beveridge aimed for freedom from want, disease, and ignorance, expecting reduced inequalities in income, health, and education.
• Impact of Social Security: While poverty remained post-WWII, reforms made a difference. Beckerman and Clark (1982) estimated the social security system removed 84.3\% of the pre-benefit poverty gap in 1961–63.

Links between Disney and the Welfare State

• ‘Charley’ - Films were used to advertise new reforms such as NHS/Schools/Welfare system - by government (a form of propaganda)

Exam Question

• How far was the experience of the Second World War responsible for the creation of the welfare state in the years 1945–51?

The Creation & Impact of the National Health Service

• NHS Creation: Established in 1948, providing free healthcare at the point of use, funded mainly by general taxation.
• Social care: Social care was not covered by the NHS; it remained the responsibility of local authorities and was means tested.
• Public expenditure: Public expenditure on health services rose from 1.6\% of GDP in 1938 to 3.4\% in 1951.
• Overspending: Initial estimates of the cost of the NHS were much too low. Expenditure in 1949–50 was about 2.5 times what had been projected in 1946.
• Aneurin Bevan: Minister of Health, responsible for establishing the National Health Service.
• Overcoming Opposition: Bevan overcame opposition from doctors by granting them a fee for each patient, allowing consultants to retain private patients, and introducing pay beds.

Exam Question

• How accurate is it to say that the efforts of Aneurin Bevan were the crucial factor in the development of a national health service in the years 1939-48?

Impact of the NHS

• Costs: Problems with soaring expenditure appeared quickly and has continued ever since.
• Impact on Health:
  • New antibiotic drugs developed in the USA caused the number of deaths from tuberculosis to fall from 25,000 to 5,000 per year.
  • Programme of mass immunisation led to a huge drop in cases of polio and diphtheria in the mid-1950s, 90% drop in cases of whooping cough by 1970, Syphilis was almost completely eradicated by the early 1990s.
  • Improved midwifery led maternal death in childbirth to fall from 1 per 1,000 births in 1949 to 0.18 in 1970.
  • Increased life expectancy: for men 66 in 1950 to 70 in 1979 and for women from 71 to 75.

Schooling in the New Jerusalem (Education & Widening Opportunities Part One)

• Butler Act of 1944: Enacted amid debates about radically transforming education.
• Key Considerations:
  • Cost of Cold War and Welfare State.
  • Labour government's conservative approach.
  • The 1944 Butler Act was waiting to be implemented.
  • Education reform was rarely an election winning issue.
• Arguments for Transformation:
  • 'Ignorance' was one of Beveridge’s ‘5 Evils’.
  • General acceptance that the ‘Brave New World’ after WWII required more educated workers.

Exam Question

• How accurate is it to say that the years 1918–79 were a period of significantly widening educational opportunities?

University Education

• Pre-War Context: England had a lower university participation rate than comparable countries.
• Post-War Context:
  • Government thought science and engineering should be more prominent in university for the sake of the economic in coming decades.
  • Need for a more skilled workforce to recover from war.
  • Push for welfare post-war meant a push for more opportunities for working-class students
• Percy Report (1945): Recommended expanding universities and challenging classical education dominance.
• Barlow Report (1946): Called for government-funded expansion of universities and increased science/engineering students.
• Impact by the end of the 1950s: By 1961 only 15% of applications were successful (despite increased numbers of school pupils)
• Butler Act 1944:
  • The Education Act 1944 and Scottish Education Act 1945 were major extensions to working-class children’s access to education
  • The Act pushed for equality but in reality the shortage of technical schools and extra funding for grammar schools meant that 11+ came to be seen as pass/fail, with those who fail being condemned to what was regarded as “inferior” education.
  • Working-class children had free and compulsory secondary education for the first time and girls were no longer excluded from secondary education and were able to attend school.
• Gender differences: At grammar schools the expectations and subjects also differed between girls and boys, although the schools were more academically focused. Girls were encouraged to focus on art and language rather than science and maths.
• University Education Major boost in students post-war - had risen from 38,000 in 1938 to 113,000 by 1962.