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.