Social Policy
Utopia
• Utopia hopes that our
judgement will make and
to use it as best we can to
judge what is wrong in our
society in the hope that
our judgement will make
us do some things right,
even if we cannot make all
things new this side of
paradise.
•
Richard Marius – Utopia as mirror for a life and times
March 1995
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
Social Policy
•Developed in the early 20th Century the principle
areas relate to;
•Policy and administrative practice in social
services, including health administration, social
security, education, employment services,
community care and housing management;
•Social problems, including crime, disability,
unemployment, mental health, learning
disability and old age;
•Issues relating to social disadvantage, including
race, gender and poverty;
•The range of collective responses to these conditions
Social Policy
Shaftesbury Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of (180185), English philanthropist and social reformer. A
dominant figure of the 19th-century social reform
movement, he inspired much of the legislation
designed to improve conditions for the large working
class created as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
His reforms included the introduction of the ten-hour
working day (1847).
Beveridge William Henry, 1st Baron (1879–1963),
British economist and social reformer, born in India.
He was chairman of the committee which prepared the
Beveridge Report, which formed the basis of much of
the social legislation on which the welfare state in the
UK is founded.
Social Policy
Who are today’s social
reformers?
Social Policy
A policy
A course or principle of action
adopted or proposed by a
government, party, business, or
individual: the government's
controversial economic policies it is
not company policy to dispense
with our older workers.
Social Policy
Social Policy
Social policies aim to improve human
welfare, though this is not always the
case, and to meet human needs for
education, health, housing and social
security.
Social Policy and Scripture
What examples are there in the Bible of
Policies being established?
Are there any policies that are
mirrored by present day society?
How does scripture say we should
respond to decisions of the
Government?
Social Policy
The name social policy is used to apply;
•To the policies which governments
use for welfare and social protection
•To the ways in which welfare is
developed in a society, and
•To the academic study of the subject
Social Policy
•Social policy is particularly concerned
with social services and the welfare
state
•Stands for a wide range of issues
extending far beyond the actions of
government
•Means by which welfare is promoted
•Social and economic conditions
which shape the development of
welfare
Context of Social Policy
An historical perspective helps us to understand the
present climate of social policy and may lead us to
speculate on the future.
For our study let us look at social policy from 1834
(arbitrary decision). This was when for the first time the
Government became permanently involved on the
welfare stage with the New Poor Law followed by public
health, employment, education.
Early 20th century saw the Liberal governments
armed with new thinking in social policy
established the roots of what was to become the
Beveridge report in 1942.
Context of Social Policy
Welfare;
commonly refers to ‘well-being’. In welfare
economics, welfare is understood in terms of
people’s well-being or interests consist of things
they choose to have.
range of services which are provided to protect
people in a number of conditions, including
childhood, sickness and old age. The idea of the
‘welfare state’ is an example. This is the equivalent
term to ‘social protection' in the EU.
in the USA, welfare refers specifically to financial
assistance to poor people. This usage is
generally not reflected elsewhere.
Context of Social Policy
The distinctions between the
developments of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries is an arbitrary
choice but it is generally agreed that
many of the adopted ideas of the
Liberal governments of the early
twentieth century were the results of
the process of debate carried on in the
previous century.
Context of Social Policy
Arguments for Welfare
•Humanitarian
•Religious
•Mutual self-interest
•Democratic
•Practical
Context of Social Policy
Arguments against welfare
•People have absolute rights to use
property as they wish
•People do not consent to welfare
provision
•The rights of the individual are paramount
Context of Social Policy
The late John Smith’s Commission on Social Justice
says in its paper The Justice Gap (1993) the following
principles;
· The foundation of a free society is the equal worth
of all its citizens;
· Everyone is entitled, as a right of citizenship, to be
able to meet their basic needs;
· The right to self-respect and personal autonomy
demands the widest possible spread of opportunities;
· Not all equalities are unjust, but unjust equalities
should be reduced and where possible eliminated.
Context of Social Policy
T The Purpose of Social Policy
T The Social Policy Programme at the Institute for Public Policy
Research(IPPR) declared its aims as being:
· To promote equity so that everyone has an equal chance in life:
since individuals have diverse and varying needs, policy should
aim to facilitate the just distribution of advantage and risk;
· To redistribute power among citizens so that everyone is able to
determine and shape their own lives, as far is compatible with the
freedom of others to do the same;
· To encourage shared responsibility for a common future: the well
being of every individual is inextricably bound up with that of
others – within and between families, neighbourhoods,
generations and different ethnic and social groups;
· To maximise economic efficiency: social policy should aim to
achieve the best value for money and help create conditions for a
thriving economy to underpin a health society. (IPPR, 1994)