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The United Kingdom is a unitary state in which central government substantially directs most government activity. However, the structure of services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differs in certain respects. Each region has both a Secretary of State and administrative department situated in central government, and its own assembly and executive, which take on the role in the region of certain central government ministries. The laws which apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland are different from those in England and Wales. The Scottish parliament has in consequence very much more influence than the Welsh Parliament, and the Scottish Government (a name confusingly used for both government and executive) has the role of a civil service for Scotland, with a social policy in its own right. The administrative structure in Northern Ireland is significantly different: personal social services are the responsibility of the Health Board (as they are in the Republic of Ireland), and public housing is managed by Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
This framework changes frequently. The most important changes in recent years have been the reformation of the Department of Social Security into the Department of Work and Pensions, the significant transfer of income maintenance to the Inland Revenue (now HMRC, for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs), and the demolition of the Department of Transport, the Regions and Local Government, whose key social policy responsibilities were placed in the Office fo the Deputy Prime Minister and have now been relocated mainly into Communities and Local Government.
The administration of the welfare state has undergone two major reforms since its inception. The first phase, covering the 1960s and 1970s, saw central government reformed in order to allow the planning and control of public expenditure by the Treasury. The aims of this reform were managerial efficiency and economic planning. The effect was to create a system in which the Treasury allocated resources to departments, and departments to services.
The second phase, which has led in the 1980s and 1990s to restructuring of the civil service and the administration of welfare, has three main elements:
quasi markets. Public services are required to act more like economic markets, with the separation of purchasing and provision of services and the introduction of competition. The trend is strongest in health and social care.
In recent years, the work of many central government agencies serving government, like the DWP's information technology or the DoH's laboratories, have been privatised or contracted out; the main role of the agencies that remain is direct service provision to the public.
The powers of the Scottish Government are devolved from Westminster. There are devolved powers, which are delegated to the Scottish Government, and reserved powers, which are retained by Westminster. Devolved powers include health, housing, social care, education, local government and civil law. Reserved powers include social security and nearly all taxation.
Currently the responsibilities of Scottish Ministers are divided between
The civil service - also, confusingly, known as the Scottish Government - has been reorganised into "directorates" which do not correspond closely to these briefs.
Despite the nominal division of labour, policy in Scotland is still strongly influenced by Westminster. Economic development is the responsibility of the Scottish government, but individualised employability provisions currently being introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions have been done without engaging the Scottish Government. Although education has been independent throughout the history of the Union, Scotland now has a national curriculum directly comparable to the English system. In many instances, such as the introduction of civil partnerships, the Scottish Parliament has referred decisions to Westminster to legislate under the provisions of the"Sewel convention".
Local government grew, in England and Wales, from the administration of the Poor Laws. When local services for health, social assistance and education were established during the 19th century, someone had to be responsible for their delivery; the powers were given to the Poor Law guardians, and subsequently this became the core of a reformed local government system. In Scotland, the local administration was more developed, being based on the police burghs, but many of the reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries were driven by English approaches.
Local government lost many of its powers after the war - including responsibility for health, social security and public utilities - and has progressively declined in influence since. The structure of local government was reformed in the 1970s, to form two main tiers (county and district) in most of Britain; in 1996 local government was focused in a single administrative tier, though some two-tier authorities have been retained.
The UK has a highly centralised system of government, and the powers of local government are very limited. Central government exercises considerable controls over local action: they include
The main power local government has is one of conservative resistance, usually in the form of a failure to put central government policies immediately into effect.
British social policy was dominated by the Poor Laws, first passed in 1598 and continuing till 1948. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 provided for
The parish was the basic unit of administration. There was, however, no general mechanism through which this could be enforced, and the Poor Law's operation was inconsistent between areas.
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The changes of the industrial revolution led to the development of the towns, rapid population growth, and the first experience of modern unemployment and the trade cycle. All this caused increasing poor rates. The Poor Law Commission of 1834 emphasised two principles:
The Poor Laws were much hated, and much of the development of social services in the 20th century - including national insurance, means tests and health care - were framed to avoid having to rely on them.
Further material: British social policy 1601-1948
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The Beveridge Report of 1942 proposed a system of National Insurance, based on three 'assumptions':
This became a major propaganda weapon, with both major parties committed to its introduction. During the war, the coalition government also committed itself to full employment through Keynesian policies, free universal secondary education, and the introduction of family allowances. The Labour Government was elected in 1945, and introduced three key acts:
the 1948 National Assistance Act, which abolished the Poor Law while making provision for welfare services.
These Acts were timed to come into force on the same day, 7th June 1948. The 1948 Children Act was another important element.
External link: Beveridge report
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"And when it gets really cold, just remember we're the envy of Europe."
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The key elements of the "Welfare State" were understood as being
Contemporary arguments emphasised the inter-related nature of these services, and the importance of each for the others. However, the administrative division between services was reinforced by reactions against the unifying and all-embracing nature of the Poor Law, which led to a strong distinction being made between income maintenance, health and welfare services.
The 'Welfare State' was not intended to respond to poverty; that was what the Poor Law had done. The main purpose was to encourage the provision of the social services on the same basis as the public services - roads, libraries and so forth - an 'institutional' model of welfare. Criticisms of the Welfare State in later years, however, were to concentrate increasingly on the problem of poverty, and debates in the UK are increasingly residual in tone.
Further material: The UK welfare state
P Alcock, Social policy in Britain, Macmillan 2003.
N Timmins, The five giants, Fontana 1996.
H Glennerster, Paying for welfare: towards 2000, Prentice Hall 1997
G Hughes, G Lewis (ed), Unsettling welfare, Routledge 1998.
J Baldock et al (eds), Social Policy, Oxford University Press 1999 (The first
1999 edition is significantly better than the second 2003 edition)
The main academic journal focusing mainly on British social policy is the Journal of Social Policy.
