Social Policy

By Author: Anthony W Bills
Total Articles: 158
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Social policy

Introduction

Social policy is referred to as guidelines for change, maintenance or living conditions that are favorable to human welfare. Social policy is a part of public policy that deals with social issues. Social policy deals with issues that are described as wicked problems. Social policy is also an academic field that focuses on the systematic evaluation of the responses given by the society on the social needs (Chambers & Wedel, 2004).
On the other hand, social work can be regarded as a professional and an academic discipline that is committed to pursuit of social welfare, change and justice. The field of social work works towards the improvement of peoples’ lives and also in developing the potential of each individual, group and community of the society. Social workers work through researching, policy and organizing as well as teaching the community. Social work includes theories from different disciplines including economics, education, and sociology among others.
Government policy of older people before the 2nd world war
In the great Britain, the so called Elizabethan ...
... poor laws that was first passed in 1598 and continued its effects till 1948 had given the mandate, that each of the 15,000 parishes in the kingdom were to be responsible for the maintenance of the poor, this led to the creation of work houses whereby the poor were taught how to support themselves. This poor law did not alleviate and neither did it solve the problem (Trattner, 1999). The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 was providing for;
• The compulsory poor rate
• Creating the overseers of relief
• Provision for settling the poor at work
There was however no mechanism through which the Poor Law could be effective because it was not consistence in all areas. The industrialization or industrial revolution led to development of towns and contributed to rapid population growth and brought about the modern experience of unemployment and change in trade cycle. This brought about the increase of poverty. Thus a commission was made to amend the poor laws in 1934, this commission emphasized on two main principles as follows:
• Less eligibility: It stated that the position of a pauper must be less eligible then that of a laborer
• There would be no relief outside the work and they referred this as workhouse test
The Poor law was hated in the 20th century. Much of the developments came late after the scraping of the Law (Hilary, 1994).
Social policy is important to the older people because it gave an avenue for their direct benefits. Old people were entitled to have some assistance through the National Assistance Act. The Act was a way of assisting the less fortunate and those who needed some assistance to have a substantial living. Insurance scheme on the other had some benefits too because it would cater for their health care and also provide them with some securities and assurance that they can access health care without a worry (Alcock, 2008).

Population ageing or population aging is when the median age of the country rises. The process is taking place in most countries of the world except 18 countries that have been termed as demographic outliers by United Nations. The economic effects of the aging population are notable. In most cases, the older people often have e more accumulations compared to the young though they could be spending less on consumer goods and more on the health issues. In most cases, the aging brought about minimizing on the interest rate though it’s an advantage to improve automation without causing unemployment. In many countries, the population aging increases some categories of expenditure. The most affected is the health care. Health care expenditure seems to increase as the age grows which on the other hand would force the government to increase taxes to care for these effects (Alcock, 2008).
Post war
The National Health Service (NHS) is a health care system that is a rare example of a truly socialized medicine. This health care is provided by one payer who is the British government and it is mainly funded by the taxpayer. All the treatments, the drug prescription and appointments are offered freely to the patients, though they pay for these services through the taxes. The national health services came into place in July 1948 during the wake of the Second World War. This system was to replace the inadequate system of volunteer hospitals which had resulted to rely on the help of the government funding during the war. Some politicians and doctors opposed the formation of the NHS but with time the idea became too good to be scrapped thus it was adopted. (Harrell, 2009). The English NHS is the only one called the National Health Service, all the others being NHS Wale and NHS Scotland. The Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland is mainly abbreviated as HSC instead of NHS. Each of these systems works independently and is mainly politically accountable to each of their relevant governments. (Jackson & Howe, 2008).
The NHS provides most of the health care services in the UK including the inpatient care, dentistry, long term health care. The NHS Act 1946 was effected on 5th July 1948. The private health care on the other hand has continued to work parallel to the NHS through providing health care funded by insurance companies. The private health care services are used by about 8% of the population. In early 21st century, NHS was corroborating with private sector to increase the capacity of its services. (Harrell, 2008)
The National Assistance Act 1948 is an Act that was used to abolish the long existing poor law and in lieu to provide for the assistance of the needy persons by the local authorities and the National Assistance Board. The Act was to also make provisions for the welfare of the sick, disabled, aged and many other persons that needed help. Other provisions were made for regulating the homes for the aged and disabled persons and also on the charities that cater for the disabled. A provision was made by the act to amend the existing law that relates to non-contributory old age pensions and provisions as to the cremation and/or the burial of deceased persons and for many other purposed that are connected to the matters that have been afore said.(legislation.gov.uk, 2010).
Policies have impacted negatively on the older people because they are vied as a burden and that they do not contribute to the economy of the country. Insurers say that the older people present a higher risk to them as some products such as the travel insurance has a direct correlation with the poor health, age and claims and these older people are the ones that frequently face these and they also make higher claims. Due to their higher risks the premiums charged are higher and this may be a further burden on business so they end up not finding a suitable cover for them. Thus the insurers suggest the government should work hand in hand with the insurer and provide a legislation that may suit the older people better, also the old people are asked not to be ignorant and find information about the covers that may be stable for them. (RBS Insurance, 2007)
Social policy/services for the older people since the world war two
The Beveridge report is a report that identifies 5 evils in the society these evils are; ignorance, want, disease, idleness and squalor it went on to suggest and propose reforms to the social welfare system in the UK to address these evils. This report went on to form a basis of the post war reforms that are known as the welfare state that include expansion of national insurance and the creation of NHS (Simkin, 1997). Beveridge argued that for the social progression that requires a coherent government policy, a fully developed social insurance may provide income security which in turn will attack the want in the society. He proposed that all the people of a working age should pay a substantial weekly contribution to which, in return the benefits would be paid out to the people who are unemployed, widowed, sick or retired. This he argued would provide a minimum standard for living below which no one is allowed to fall. In this report it was suggested that the British citizen should be taken care of by the government from cradle to grave. (Simkin, 1997)
The Seebohm report changed basically the delivery of the then welfare services into social services. Before there were different departments that dealt with the welfare of the children, elderly physically and mentally handicapped and the home help service, each of these was run in the local towns by a senior welfare officer who had his staff who assisted him. Seebohm and his team saw that this was a waste of financial resources and manpower. After the implementation of his report all these services were combined under one umbrella known as social services.
The Griffiths report was influenced by the ideology of materialism. Griffiths believed that majority of the problems facing the welfare state was caused by lack of effective strong management and leadership. This report was also known as community care: Agenda for action. He intended this plan to cover the mess in the area between social and health services. This area included the continuing and long term care of the older people, mentally ill and the disabled. He said that community care was not working because nobody wanted to accept the responsibility for the community care (spicker,2007).
Caring for people or the white paper 1989 was a response to the Griffiths report published by the government. It was a companion paper to the working for patients and shares the general principles. It believed that the state provision was beaureaucratic and inefficient, there should be a separation of the purchaser and provider roles and lastly a devolution of budgetary and budgets control. The paper followed the recommendations made by Griffiths and also made its objectives that required a new legislation that was enacted later on in the national health services and community care act 1990 (Rudolf, 2010).
Community care under the NHS and community care act 1990 was enacted so that the mentally ill, the older people and the learning disabled could remain in their homes while undergoing treatment. This raised some concerns that these people could cause problems in the society but still the truth is that the healthy people are the ones who may be a problem to these people. These services offered in community care are day care, residential care, domiciliary care, hospital care. A patient is individually assessed and assigned a specific care worker. These has posed a challenge where by it is not clear who should pay for these services between the social and health services and also the event where these people go into the streets and become homeless (spicker,2007).
Then the older people were discriminated against, they were considered a burden to the society and they went through a bad time as they could not provide for their needs. Though there were laws such as the poor law that provided for work houses for the old, as time went on these work houses became a burden to the old and they suffered more than they were supposed to gain from this policy. Now the introduction of the national assistance act, the NHS, the NHS and Community Care Act have all been of great help to the older people now they can get care even from their homes, their needs are taken care of and none is left to suffer as there is a minimum level where everyone has to be. Thus now the older are receiving much greater care than before (spicker,2007).
Link between social policy and social work practice
Due to age, older people lack adequate resources compared to young people. Younger people are able to work and access education that in turn helps them secure better jobs. Older people were limited to working and they could only live under their savings. In most cases, old people who could not look after themselves were taken to workhouses where they could be looked after and be provided with basic requirements for their survival. Old people were affected adversely by lack of adequate services and because they are old and frail they ended up dying because they had no strength to work for their needs (Grand, 1982).
The eligibility criteria for care services was changed in 2007, its aim is to enable the social workers carry out an assessment on the existing and the new service users to check if they are eligible for support. There are four bands in this criteria, these include, critical, substantial, low, and moderate. These services may be provided to people who are in the first two categories and the people in the other latter groups will be supported through the wellbeing and independence strategy which is a preventative strategy that ensures the individuals are able to live in the community safely and independently. (Kingston, 2010)
Social exclusion can be regarded as a multidimensional process of a progressive social rupture through which groups; individuals are detached from the social relations, institution and other activities through preventing them from full participation in the normal and normatively activities that they ought to participate in the society they live in. On the other hand, it can be regarded as a way of preventing people from full participation to economical, social and political life in the society they live in (Trojanowicz and Bucqueroux, 1994).
Social exclusion was widely used in the UK and other parts of Europe to defend and favor some practices and also fit an argument. It was used in multi disciplines including politics, economics, psychology, sociology and education as well. Social exclusion was evident in the deprived communities because they could not fully engage in the society work. In those communities that were being excluded, they continued to suffer because the communication could not fully circulate and they could not be informed of the job openings, political activities as well as the events that are happening within the community (Power, & Wilson, 2000).
Social inequality was also viewed as exclusion. Inequality was that some are more advantaged compared to others in regard to social context. The main occurrence of inequalities occurs in the race, gender, class, age, income and wealth. There are three main categories of inequality that on the other hand contributes to the exclusions including:
• Stratification
• Social division
• Hierarchical inequality
Social inequality is associated with social problems. Its evidence that societies that are unequal, tend to be poorer and mental illnesses are common phenomena and they also have an increased crime rate.
Social workers believe that modern exclusion is not as much as there was initially. Exclusion in the country side is as equal to the exclusions within the cities. In rural areas, access of goods, services and facilities is hard and this contributed to hard life in the rural areas.
Social work is defined by the activities of the personal social services and also the client group that they deal with. A social worker’s job is to interpret this in various ways that include, problem solving, psycho-social therapy, crisis intervention and so on. The role of a social worker and the methods used in social work largely depend on interpretation of the problem that the worker is dealing with. (Spicker, 2007)
The Social worker was and is respected in the society because of capability of dealing with people of different types and with different problems. Social work is an emotional duty that requires a hard person who would not be restricted from doing something because of emotions (Rittel & Webber, 1973).
There are several advantages and disadvantages of social work roles.
Advantages
• The best thing with a social worker is an advantage to interact with the outside world.
• On the other hand, a social worker helps other people in making a difference in there lives
• A social worker roles are rewarding if the social worker stays powerful and encouraged
Disadvantages
• A role of a social worker needs a person with less emotions because its an emotional job
• Its also a stressful job with many roles which are all of the same importance
• A social worker is not always able to help all people the way he planned
• Social worker works for extensive hours
• A social worker has lot to win including rape cases, incest, and abuse though in some cases they loose which relatively frustrating.
• May put their lives in danger as they deal with all kinds of people other may be mentally disabled and may cause harm to them.
Conclusion
In all these we see that the older people have the greatest challenges when it comes to getting proper care, these older people because of their age are very vulnerable and if not taken care of in the right way, they may suffer to the extent of death. Before, older people had no policy that took care of them extensively they were viewed as a burden to society because they did not contribute to the economy of the country, in Britain, the poor laws ended up being a failure as the old were totally not cared for, later there came the NHS Acts, NHS and Community care Act that really came up to fight for the elderly, mentally ill and other people who needed the help. Nowadays this system has grown rapidly and even private institutions have come up that provide these services to these people. The older people have benefited greatly by the community care strategy, the Griffiths and the Seebohm reports that have in a greater way improved the care system. Though all these policies have been implemented, changes are being made day in day out that are in each day improving the care.
The government has to a great extent improved the position of the old people by conducting researches and consultations so as to come up with the best policy for these old people. So far so good, though it is not yet perfect. The old people in Britain can now age gracefully without much concern about how they will live and where they will get their basic needs because the government had gone a step further to ensure that they are taken care of. The government has partnered with the private sector to get more providers of these services thus what ever ones need is it can be taken care off.
The social workers have played a very important role in providing the best care for the older people because without their dedication and passion for help no policy would have been implemented. Thus to a large extent, the social workers are to be appreciated for their efforts in giving the older people the services they require. The policies can be enacted but without the implementers the policies would not be affected thus all in all with these good policies on care providing and the very dedicated social workers the older people and all the other people that need this care are in good hands.
Reference:
Alcock, P 2008 Social policy in Britain, Macmillan.
Chambers, D. & Wedel, R, 2004, Social policy and social programs, Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Grand, J 1982, The strategy of equality, Allen and Unwin.
Harrell, E 2009, Is Britain’s Health-Care System Really That Bad? Retrieved 17th January 2011 from http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1916570,00.html
Hilary, S 1994 “Social Exclusion and Social Solidarity.” International Labor Review 133, nos. 5-6 531-78.
Jackson, R. & Howe, N. 2008 The Graying of the Great Powers, Washington: Center for Strategic and International Studies,
Power, A. & Wilson, J 2000, Social Exclusion and the Future of Cities, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics, London
Rittel, H. & Webber, M. 1973, Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Sci 4:155-169.
Rudolf, K. 2010, The New Politics of the NHS: From creation to reinvention. Radcliffe Publishing
Trattner, W. I. 1999. From poor law to welfare state (6th ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.
Trojanowicz, R. and Bucqueroux, B. 1994, Community Policing: How to Get Started: Cincinnati, Anderson Publishing
Kingston, 2010,equality impact assessment- adult social care- eligibility criteria. Retrived 17th January, 2011 from http://www.kingston.gov.uk/information/your_council/equalities/equality_impact_assessments/eqia_community_services/eqia_adult_social_care_eligibility_criteria.htm
Legislation.gov.uk. 2010, national assistance act; 1948CHAPTER 29 11 and 12 Geo 6. Retrieved 17th January 2011 from 1948http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/29
RBS Insurance, 2007, RBS Insurance’s response to the Government’s Consultation on a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain. Retrieved 17th January 2011 from www.equalities.gov.uk/consultations/r/rbs_insurance.aspx
Simkin, J 1997, Spartacus Educational; Beveridge report. Retrieved 17th January 2011 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWbeveridgereport.htm
Spicker, P 2007, An introduction to social policy. Retrieved 17th January 2011 from http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/pss.htm

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