Labour

• The labour reforms were introduced under the labour government of Clement Atlee


  1945-1951
• William Beveridge's research


  Showed there were five main causes of poverty
• Beveridge's proposals


  Aimed to help everyone from the cradle to the grave, be available to all even if they hadn't paid into the scheme and they were compulsory
• The five giants the labour reforms aimed to help


  • Disease
  • Ignorance
  • Squalor
• Overall the labour reforms were effective in dealing with the five giants
• The first giant the labour reforms aimed to tackle was disease


  1. Labour government introduced the NHS

  2. NHS provided free prescriptions, dental care and visits to the GPS

  3. Due to budget requirements charges were introduced for prescriptions and dental care from 1951
• The NHS was effective in dealing with disease


  It gave the poor living in poverty the chance to get the necessary help without the worry of the poor financial situation that they will have to deal with after receiving care
• The NHS was less effective


  Due to the large amounts of overspending the NHS had to begin charging for certain services meaning it was inaccessible and led to people ending up back in poverty
• In the first year of the NHS there were 13.5 million prescriptions produced per month and 8 million dental patients treated
• The next giant the labour reforms aimed to help was ignorance


  1. Labour government introduced the butlers education act

  2. Increased the school leaving age to 15 years old
• The education act was effective in dealing with ignorance


  It meant kids who would have left before the age of 15 didn't have that option, so they had to stay and get a better education ultimately giving them a higher chance of getting a good job and getting out of poverty
• The education act was less effective


  Many working class children still ended up in unskilled low paying employment such as construction
• The split after the 11+ exam perpetuated the class system and increased the inequality between those in working class and middle class
• The 11+ exam or the qualy was introduced which decided whether kids would go to grammar school or a technical school
• The labour reforms helped to tackle squalor


  1. Labour government introduced the new towns act 1946

  2. 14 new towns were built to solve housing shortages including Glenrothes and East Kilbride
• The new towns act was effective

  It meant that many people who had no where to live could get shelter in affordable housing which prevented them falling into poverty
• The new towns act was less effective


  They failed to solve the problem of homelessness, so the homeless rates were still very high, and many people struggled to survive on the streets
• In 1946 only 55,000 houses were built
• A target of 200,000 new houses built per year was set and eventually met by the government