The National Health Service in England1

This chapter explains how it can argued that the larger the investment by any society in ‘individualism’, the more may ‘health consciousness’ spread. Similarly, the limits to what is personally conceived to be tolerable in feelings of bad health or inadequate function may also rise. And as society becomes more health conscious (in the sense of more individuals becoming aware of the higher standards expected of them) the more may each individual become dependent, or at least feel dependent, in an age of scientific medicine, on other individuals — and on resources external to themselves for the achievement of good health.

The Hospital and Its Patients1

This chapter discusses the significance of the hospital as a social institution. It is one of the most complex of social institutions — an institution which in recent years has grown immensely in its complexities, and to which scholars have added newer complications as a result of the development of the National Health Service. Now, in this situation, the chapter suggests three main dangers. The first danger is that increasing complexity in structure, functions, and administration can lead to increasing economic and social costs without a proportional rise in value rendered to the community. The second danger is that the ends or aims of hospital work may be obscured by excessive preoccupation with means. The third danger is represented by scientific and technological advance.

Industrialization and The Family1

This chapter explores how there are at least three reasons why industrialization and the family is today an important subject for debate by an international conference of social workers. The first is an obvious one: the opportunities that it offers for discussion and analysis on a comparative basis. The second lies in the fact that the world is increasingly an industrial world and dominated in its values and goals by problems of economic growth. The third reason in supporting the choice of this particular subject for discussion is that social work is primarily an activity carried on in industrial, urban societies. The problems of human needs and relationships with which social work has traditionally been associated have had their origin in those societies experiencing the impact of industrialization.

The Position of Women

This chapter talks about the satisfaction of recalling some of the achievements of the Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, especially in a period when the possibilities of social progress and the practicability of applied social science are being questioned. The development of the personal, legal, and political liberties of half the population of the country within the span of less than eighty years stands as one of the supreme examples of consciously directed social change. The chapter then draws together some of the vital statistics of birth, marriage, and death for the light they shed on the changes that have taken place in the social position of women. Then, it suggests that the accumulated effect of these changes now presents the makers of social policy with some new and fundamental problems.

The Social Division of Welfare

This chapter looks at how some students of social policy see the development of ‘The Welfare State’ in historical perspective as part of a broad, ascending road of social betterment provided for the working classes since the nineteenth century and achieving its goal in the present time. This interpretation of change as a process of unilinear progression in collective benevolence for these classes led to the belief that in the year 1948 ‘The Welfare State’ was established. Since then, successive governments, Conservative and Labour, have busied themselves with the more effective operation of the various services. Both parties have also claimed the maintenance of ‘The Welfare State’ as an article of faith.

The National Health Service in England

This concluding chapter reviews how, during the past decade, there has been an increasing volume of studies and reports on general practice in Britain, the United States, and other countries. No doubt much of this interest has been provoked by the growing impact of scientific developments on medicine over the same period. These have raised many questions about the present state of general practice, its historical evolution, and its future place in medical care. The chapter discusses the association of these developments with the changing character of demand for medical care and its effects on the doctor–patient relationship. It also looks at the questions of science and specialism in a broader historical context.

The National Health Service In England

This chapter considers the various reasons which help to determine whether the record of the Health Service is one of progress and success. Some of the more important ones become explicable only when it is understood how far reaching the effects of the Second World War on the British economy were. The whole fabric of organized medical care, public and private, suffered particularly. Inevitably, the highest priorities in medicine were reserved for the military and civil defence forces. Even as early as June 1943, the standard of medical care available for the civilian population was, in the judgment of the War Cabinet, dangerously low.

War and Social Policy1

This chapter focuses on the relationship of war and social policy. So far as the story of modern war before 1939 is concerned, little has been recorded in any systematic way about the social arid economic effects of war on the population as a whole. Only long and patient research in out-of-the-way documentary places can reveal something of the characteristics and flavour of social life during the experience of wars in the past. In discussing social policy, the chapter pertains to those acts of governments deliberately designed and taken to improve the welfare of the civil population in time of war. It also asks whether there were any recorded accounts of the movement of civilian populations in past wars as a calculated element in war strategy.

Pension Systems and Population Change1

This chapter details certain aspects of social provision for old age and, in particular, some of the issues raised by the report of the Phillips Committee. This involves consideration of five other important state documents which, in one way or another, bear on the question of standards of living for old people. All these reports exhibit in common a deep concern about future population trends. The chapter shows that it is difficult to understand why the gradual emergence in Britain of a more balanced age structure should be regarded as a ‘problem of ageing’. It argues that the present alarm is unjustified; that the demographic changes which are under way and are foreseeable have been exaggerated, and that unless saner views prevail harm may be done to the public welfare.

Social Administration in a Changing Society1

This chapter argues that the future of social administration depends, to some extent, on the future of the great experiments in social service which have been launched in Britain in recent years. To this uncertainty must be added, in the teaching of social administration, the awareness of intellectual uncertainty which attends on those concerned with the study of human relations, for only now are people beginning to grope their way towards some scientific understanding of society. Uncertainty, then, is part of the price that has to be paid for being interested in the many-sidedness of human needs and behaviour. The chapter also presents some generalizations about the nature of social change which, by their effect on the individual and the family, affect also the structure and roles of the social services.