Government Policy and Ideologies of Welfare

Govern drawforcet Policy and Ideologies of Wel far-offeWith reference to changes in government policy and ideologies of amicable wellbeing, debate the significance of the deracination from victorian pauper to 21st century service user and its impact on complaisant cogitation practice and values.By charting changes in government policy and eudaimonia ideologies, this essay will discuss the significance of the move from the squared-toe Pauper towards the 21st century Service User and examine how this has influenced accessible devise values and practice. merely first, brief consideration must be given to offering a definition of these terms. The Oxford English Dictionary (2009 online) defines a pauper as somebody with no belongings or means of livelihood who is leechlike upon charity from others and a beggar. Terminology has changed dramatically and the term service user emerged in the 1990s as the generic wine name for people social workers work with (Pierson Thomas, 20 06 560). In contrast to pauper, the Collins Internet-Linked Dictionary of social Work by Pierson and Thomas (2006 560) statesits popularity has spread among practitioners, managers and social work educators alike as it seems to convey the more contemporary emphasis on those who receive the service having some salutarys and influence over that service (Ibid.).All societies check methods of assisting those in financial difficulties (Payne, 2005 13) and the 1601 English misfortunate Law was the first national welfare provision that lasted in one form or another for 350 long cartridge holder (Spicker, 2008 78). However, in the 18th century, the Poor Law Report demonstrated the watercourse allowance system was demoralising and promoted idleness (Fraser, 2009 53). This, couplight-emitting diode with a proliferation of paupers and escalating relief costs, led to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 which heralded the introduction of workhouses, designed to deter everyone but the destitute from applying for support (Thane, 1996 31). It was hoped by replacing outdoor relief with the workhouse, the faults of the current system would be corrected (Fraser, 2009 55). Ultimately, it provided a harsh ersatz to self-help that the pauper would moreover accept when destitute and fearing the workhouse, they would hopefully find employment (Ibid. 55-56). This was in keeping with the commonplace social philosophy of the time that supposed men were masters of their own fate and that the individual had within his grasp the power to find his own salvation (Ibid. 56). Those requiring assistance were blamed for their position and anticipate to find solutions to their own self-imposed misery (Sullivan, 1996 xiv). Therefore, the Victorian Poor Law divided the needy into the deserving and despicable poor with the deserving worthy of philanthropic assistance whilst the unworthy was punished for their feckless behaviour (Ibid.). In essence, the Amendment Act successfully forced able -bodied men to take responsibility for themselves (Thane, 1996 33).Throughout the 1880s charitable responses to suffering grew (Payne, 2005 36) and the Charitable Organisation Society was established in 1869, aiming to persuade charities to organise resources so they were distributed to those conk out(p) able to use them (Thane, 1996 21). The COS was not an alternative to the Poor Law, but the flip side of the same coin (Payne, 2005 36) and its principles encouraged people to become self-dependent and only helped those with potential to support themselves (Thane, 1996 21). It provided charity for the deserving and hence, left those without potential to become self-dependent to destitution or the Poor Law (Ibid. 21-34). Furthermore, COS endeavoured to find lasting solutions to peoples problems, without removing them from their surroundings and pioneered the practice of case-work whereby investigations were conducted into clients backgrounds who were then helped if deemed worthy (I bid.). Much had to be said for this case-work approach, which provided a real attempt to investigate the nature of the peoples problems (Ibid.) and essentially, through the development of this method, created social work (Payne, 2005 38).Many people following COS principles in theory found it challenging to abandon those in desperate need in practice (Thane, 1996 23). Hence, dissatisfaction generated juvenile voluntary approaches, including the Settlement Movement, which initiated modern fellowship work (Ibid.). Residential settlement Toynbee Hall was established in 1884 where graduates would live and work among the poor a pretending replicated throughout the country by the end of the century (Ibid.). It aimed for them to utilise their moral example and education to foster social development (Payne, 2005 37) and its warden Samuel Barnett believed class harmony and corporeal improvement would only improve when the rich regarded the poor as equally worthy individuals (Thane, 1996 21).Moving to the twentieth century, following the Second World War, fundamental welfare changes were introduced under the Labour government in accordance with a blueprint proposed in the 1942 Beveridge Report (Bochel, 2008 192). Subsequently, the period from 1945 until the 1970s is consideredOne of political consensus on gravestone issues, stemming from a combination of the economic philosophy of Keynes, and the social policy of Beveridge, enshrining the ideas of the mixed economy and the welfare state (Ibid.).During this period it was assumed societies had progressed, rendering the state responsible for(p) for providing universal welfare provision for citizens (Payne, 2005 50). Subsequently, the state established a range of social services in the new era of welfare capitalism and this social security was regarded as the instrument that would eradicate poverty (Sullivan, 1996 xiii-3). The welfare state was created to put welfare on a new footing (Briggs, 1961 cited in Spicker, 20 08 121) where everyone, not just the poor, had the right to access services (Spicker, 2008 121). This contrasted starkly to when support was confined to the destitute and deliberately made unpleasant under the Poor Law (Checkland Checkland, 1974 cited in Spicker, 2008 121) and this commitment to universalism provided an obvious change from the past (Sullivan, 1996 54). Moreover, social work was becoming accepted as part of universal welfare provision alongside health, living accommodations and social security (Payne, 2005 50) and in the 25 years following the war, a gradual professionalizing shift occurred (Lymberry, 2001 371). Subsequently, following the 1968 Seebohm Report and the 1970 Local Authority favorable function Act, the three existing personal social services were reorganised into unified local authority departments (Sullivan, 1996 195-196). It was hoped this would provide a more co-ordinated and comprehensive approach to the problems of individuals, families and comm unities (Seebohm Report, 1968 quoted in Lymberry, 2001 371). Fundamentally, this was a period of proliferation and consolidation for social work with the hope it would contribute towards creating a more equal society (Lymberry, 2001 371).This movement to the welfare state from the Poor Law is referred to as the progression to institutional welfare from residual provision (Wilensky Lebeaux, 1965 cited in Spicker, 2008 92). Residual welfare catered for a limited number of people, was provided under long-suffering and regarded as a public burden (Spicker, 2008 92). Furthermore, the Poor Law was punitive in nature, limited liabilities through deterrence and deprived paupers of their rights (Ibid.). Contrastingly, institutional welfare cover the general populations needs, regardless of their financial circumstances, and offered protection to everyone (Ibid.). It was built on accepting mutual responsibility, considered dependency to be normal, and was based on the premise of a right to welfare and citizenship, (Ibid.). Theoretically, this universalism provided the only mood to guarantee high quality of services were available for all and removed the stigma associated with state services (Sullivan, 1996 54).During the two decades subsequently the war, governments believed in Keynesian demand management techniques and Beveridges social ideas (Ibid. 90). However, from the late 1960s these economic policies failed and the UK faced a fiscal crisis of the state (Ibid.). Subsequently, when the worldly-mindeds were elected in 1979, the political theory of the New Right dominated and heralded a change from the post-war welfare consensus (Lymberry, 2001 372). This period was characterised by Neo-liberal thinking, which fundamentally questioned the state-delivered institutions forming the welfare state, and these beliefs have affected policy-making and the welfare system during recent decades (Ellison, 2008 61-67). For example, Thatchers government was dedicated to rolli ng back the state and denying mutual commitments among citizens because allegedly society did not exist but comprised of competing individuals instead (Lowe, 1999 307). They aspired for those dependent on the state to become independent becauseIf those in need were encouraged to look passively to the state for help, they would be denied the invigorating experience of self-help and of family or community care (Ibid.).Therefore, the New Right were committed to re-moralising society, just as Poor Law reformers of the 1830s had before them, with a return to Victorian values (Ibid.). This generated a diminution in benefits and conditions stipulated for accessing these were toughened (Clarke et al., 2000 3). Furthermore, an increasing stigma was attached to publicly provided welfare and it was, in some respects, criminalised by linking US notions of welfare dependency and demoralisation to UK ideas of scrounging and undeserving (Ibid.). Fundamentally, welfare had come full circle whenInd ividualism as the motor of economic and social policy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centurys gave way to the collectivism of that classic welfare state only to re-emerge in the late twentieth century (Sullivan, 1996 xv).New Right emphasis on the holiness of marriage and family, the demonization of those who threatened these and their promotion of a social put based on Victorian values impacted on social work (Lymberry, 2001 372). It was forced to abandon its pretensions to providing a universalist service and focus on statutory duties, omitting the preventative remit laid out in the Seebohm Report (Ibid.). Furthermore, it underlined individuals expression after themselves and their families (Bochel, 2008 194). Subsequently, social work changed after the Barclay Report of the 1980s, which introduced community social work strategies and encouraged local authority social services departments to develop alternative ways of meeting social need (Sullivan, 1996 196). This approa ch envisaged moving from the traditional one-to-one focus towards facilitating self-help by communities, social networks, and individuals (Ibid.). Moreover, it heralded the movement of social workers from therapists to enablers, support informal carers instead of providing the care themselves (Ibid.).When looking at New Labour and their Third Way approach, a decisive shift has occurred in the role of the recipients of social work services. For example, Blair (2000 cited in Jordan, 2001 529) intended to change the welfare state from delivering passive support towards active support, promoting citizens independence instead. Taking the middle ground between free-market principles of the Conservative years and old style socialism it meant services would demand more from citizens, requiring people to contribute to a responsible community (Jordan, 2001 529-530). This tougher approach to welfare is obvious in expecting many single parents, the disabled, and those receiving employment bene fits to actively seek employment (Ellison, 2008 67). Additionally, benefits are now less generous and more strictly means-tested than in the crest of Keynesian welfare (Ibid.).Furthermore, the development of anti-oppressive practice signals a change in the attitudes towards the role of users of social work services. Anti-oppressive practice has emerged over the last decade, forms part of the diminutive social work tradition, and is concerned with transforming power relations at every level in practice (Healy, 2005 172-178). Theorists believe the social work role is political with social workers holding a privileged status in comparison to service users (Ibid). Therefore, social workers must be critical and reflective in order to not replicate oppressive social relations in practice (Ibid.). Furthermore, it promotes working in partnership with service users with power genuinely shared at both an interpersonal and institutional level (Dalrymple and Burke, 1995 65 cited in Healy, 200 5 187). Thus, service users opportunities for participation in decision-making should be maximised (Healy, 2005 187).Social work has been affected by the unabated advancement of consumer capitalism and service users are expected to be more involved in arranging and managing services (Harris, 2009 67). The New Right ideas emphasised that citizens had a right to freedom and choice (Ibid. 68) and recent Conservative and Labour administrations have encouraged citizens to participate in welfare services utilising market-like approaches to consultation and increased say-so in decision-making (Bochel, 2008 194). Efforts have been made to promote service user participation in planning and development with the view that their active role improves health and social care services (Carr, 2004 2). Furthermore, the importance of individual choice in improving provider effectiveness, the notion of citizens rights and responsibilities and a belief that individuals involvement in decision-making re sults in solutions that better meet their needs have been underlined (Bochel, 2008 194-195). This is evident in the Direct Payments scheme, endorsed on the basis of choice and independence, and demonstrates that the state increasingly expects citizens to be competent enterprising, managerial and main(a) individuals (Scourfield, 2007 108). However, as Scourfield (Ibid.) asserts this raises concerns about dependent citizens and emphasisesa danger of using independence and choice as central organizing principles is to forget how and why the public sector emerged in the first placeto ensure that those who are necessarily dependent are treated with respect and dignity, to ensure a collectivized approach to risk, and to ensure that unafraid(p) and reliable forms of support outside of the market or the family are available.Additionally, as Carr (2004 2) found, the extent to which service user participation leads to improvements in services varies and there is little monitoring and evaluat ion of the difference user participation is making. Furthermore, despite citizenship, choice, community, social inclusion and autonomy being key to New Labours programme, (Blair, 1998 cited in Humphries, 2004 95) Humphries (2004 95) contends Labours pursue of neo-liberal economic and morally repressing policies has degraded public services punishing and excluding those regarded as having been given a chance but having failed. She proposes it is social workers who are expected to implement the surveillance systems that operate these policies and under New Labour a shift has occurred towards social work having an increasingly negative and narrow practice focused on restriction, surveillance, control and exclusion (Ibid. 93-95). Thus, social work is concerned with the moralistic side of Labours policies rather than with empowering people instead (Jordan, 2001 cited in Humphries, 2004 94). Moreover, since 1993, increasingly punitive and repressive measures have been introduced to det er asylum seekers from coming to Britain and if they are granted access they enter an inhumane and inferior welfare system (Humphries, 2004 100). Acts such as the 1993 safety and Immigration Appeals Act and the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act removed those subject to immigration controls from the welfare state (Ibid. 101) and Cohen (2003 cited in Humphries, 2004 101) describes the asylum support system as the creation of a modern day poor law based on coercion and lack of choice.This essay has documented the move from the use of the Victorian term pauper to the 21st century term service user by looking at shifts in government policy and welfare ideologies and its impact on social work. Looking back, one would hope we have progressed from the Victorian Poor Law that blamed the pauper for their need of assistance and deterred them from accessing support by rendering it as unpleasant as possible. However, when observing the stringent means-tested benefit system and New Labours tough a pproach welfare, ascertaining whether we have moved forward becomes questionable. Zarb (2006 2), referring to how older couples can be separated due to housing and care allocation, questions whether citizens are still treated like the paupers in the Poor Law era who were regularly split up for not meeting the parishes criteria for support. Furthermore, to finish, Wynne-Jones (2007 online), writing on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website, highlights that today the media still assigns different types of morality to types of povertyThe undeserving poor are the Asbo kids and the hoodies, the drug-addicted and semipermanent unemployed. On the other hand, the deserving poor look a lot like middle Englanders fallen on hard times.Having spent time with a group of troubled young people on a Peckham estate, following the death of Damilola Taylor in 2000, she believes that it is through the stereotyped comedy characters such as Little Britains Vicky Pollard that Middle England reveals how th reatened it feels about the undeserving poor utilising comedy as a means of criticising our societies underclass (Ibid.). She maintains that as Middle England laughs from the restlessness that people like this exist on our poorest estates, years on from Damilolas death, we are still failing those, like the group in Peckham, who are damaged so badly by life that their only empowerment is to attack others (Ibid.). 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