Social Welfare in Britain – Term 2

1. Social Welfare in Britain – Term 2 Contemporary Social Policy: From Thatcher to Blair/Brown and Beyond

2. Aims of today’s lecture: • Review the period from Thatcher to Blair/Brown and Beyond • Provide guide to Reading • Clarify Assessment Rules • Get you started on preparing a Policy Research Report

3. Social Policy ‘Milestones’ • 1834 Poor Law • 1911 NI Act • 1942 Beveridge Report • 1945-51 Postwar ‘settlement’ • 1976 ‘Old’ Labour’s IMF Crisis • 1979 Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives • 1997 Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ • 2008-9 Credit Crunch • 2010 Conservative/Lib Dem coalition

4. Key Questions Thatcher to Blair/Brown & Beyond • Continuity and Change -What Changed or stayed the same? • Changes within ‘pathways’ or onto new ones? (Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State, 1994) • What drove developments (incl continuities)? • national ideological/political pressures: continuities and shifts • global economic pressures including structural economic changes • demographic and social changes • What were the results?

5. Welfare in a Right State • Welfare state remains (housing excepted) but significantly restructured • Challenge by Thatcher to social democratic welfare consensus/compromise with some success • Ascendancy of neoliberalism fundamentally embraced by Blair/Brown – even taken further? • Key Social Policy trends • From citizenship rights to increasing conditionality • Growing marketisation of publicly funded social provision • What were the effects for good or ill? • Did this have to happen or are there alternatives?

6. Thatcher/Major Council House Sales 1980 Allowed unemployment to rise, denied existence of poverty Incremental social security reforms mid 1980s 1990 NHS reforms 1992 Private Finance Initiative Job Seekers Allowance 1996 Blair/Brown Non interference in economy – supply side New Deal for employment 1998 Child Poverty targets 1998 Tax Credits 1999 Minimum Wage 1999 NHS Plan 2000 Health Inequalities strategy following 1998 Acheson report Key Social Policy Measures

7. No right or wrong answers but… You will be expected to be ‘critical’: • Aware of role of different perspectives • Things aren’t inevitable just because they happened’ • Against economic determinism or powerless due to globalisation • For seeing political choice over welfare possible – Scotland and Wales, money for wars and bankers • Failure of markets now apparent - is a return to social democracy possible and desirable?

8. Bochel (2005), Social Policy: Issues and Developments, Prentice Hall C Alcock (2003) Introducing Social Policy, Prentice Hall P Alcock (2008), Social Policy in Britain, Palgrave Blakemore (2005) Social Policy: An Introduction, OU Press Textbooks are out of date! read Guardian, BBC News Keep up with latest research – Critical Social Policy, Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Society Key websites esp Joseph Rowntree Trust, Kings Fund, and pressure groups (esp for Policy Research Report) Read, Think and Debate

9. Library Course Extracts – no excuse! • http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/electronicresources/extracts/so • This link also on - you will have to sign in • Arranged alphabetically rather than by week • For Background to module see Giddens (2006) • For New Right see Flynn (1989), and Pratt (2006)

10. Year 1/Level 1: One 2,000 word Policy Research Report One 3 hour exam: 3 questions, at least 1 from Section A and B Deadlines for submission of assessed work for all students are in module handout. Work handed in late risks incurring significant penalties Year 2/Hons Level, choice of: One 3 hour exam: 3 questions, 1 from each of Sections A, B & C Fully assessed: one policy research report + 1 essay from list (3,000 words each) One policy research report (3,000 words) plus one 2 hour examination: 2 questions, 1 from each of Sections A and B Assessment

11. Policy Research Reports • All students must produce a Policy Research Report (PRR) for assessment (year 1/level 1; year 2/hons level) or examination (year 2/hons level only) • Class work (i.e. non-assessed) for term 2 involves the submission of work-in-progress on your PRR (Year 1/L1 1,500 words; Year 2/Hons 2,000 words) • Work-in-progress on PRRs must be submitted by week 6 of term 2.

12. Why a PRR ? To: • undertake independent social policy research in topic of your choice • develop a detailed knowledge of a specialist area of contemporary social policy • produce your own ideas, analysis and conclusions

13. What does a PRR involve? • Researching a policy document around which to construct your report • Locating a policy document – choose an area of policy that you are interested in • What is an appropriate policy document? • A clear link to term 2: poverty, employment and health • Of suitable quality – establish document credentials/credibility (Government, Research Institute, Pressure Group) • A clear contemporary social policy focus (relating to term 2) • A broad enough focus (not overly specific) • Initial ideas will be discussed with seminar tutors early in term 2.

14. What should my PRR contain? • Your selected document must: • provide means to research particular policy area • allow basis for detailed inquiry and investigation • be ‘rich’ in content: e.g. data, analysis, ideas, discussion, recommendations • You must contextualise your document by reference to academic literature. This will allow context; understanding; and analysis. • You must not restrict yourself to summarising/describing your policy document

15. How can I find a suitable document? • University of Warwick library: Official Publications (Floor 3); and general stock (e.g. CPAG publications) • The Internet • Government Departments – e.g. Health, Work and Pensions, Education • Quango – Low Pay Commission • Independent Research or Policy Focused Organisations – Joseph Rowntree Trust, King’s Fund, Institute • Other non-government organisations, e.g. TUC • Think Tanks allied to a greater or lesser degree political parties: Policy Exchange, Institute for Public Policy Research, Institute of Economic Affairs • Pressure or campaigning groups e.g. Save the Children, CPAG • Survey the social policy field by completing the Intute Training Suite: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/social-policy

16. How should my PRR be structured? • You must give your assignment a proper title • Introduction – identify report & authors (including their status); its broad focus & concerns; the issues you will discuss • Summary of the report’s findings and arguments • A wider literature review – (a) the wider policy context of the Report, (b) Testing it against wider evidence and alternative proposals • A critical discussion the policy document • A conclusion pulling threads together – reaching your own assessment based

17. What constitutes work-in-progress? • Submission of 1500/2000 word work-in-progress report by week 6 • By then, you should have: • identified a suitable issue/document and considered the status of the authors • began to discuss your document, the wider context its data, evidence and debates • Developed a summary of the document (hint look at Executive Summary, drawing on the broader academic literature • sketched out preliminary conclusions • If your document relates to a topic yet to be considered by week 6, you should focus more on 1,2 and 4.