Introduction

Chapter Two outlined the complexity of evacuation arrangements during the Second World War and suggested this had a deleterious impact upon some sick and frail elderly people. Evacuation policy was seen as driven by a concern for the morale of the civilian population rather than as an attempt to meet the needs of dependent groups.

This chapter continues the theme of the importance of civilian morale and charts its relevance to the emergence of social policy reforms for elderly people in the period 1942-48. As the war progressed the care of elderly people ‘at risk’ became seen as important by the government because of the desire to be perceived as sympathetic to the needs of deserving groups. Subsequent to the publication of the Beveridge Report (1942), sensitivity to issues of social justice combined with the improved war situation opened the way for voluntary groups to argue for reforms in both residential and domiciliary services for older people. The extent and form in which the government responded to these pressures is a central feature of this chapter.

The Beveridge Report

The Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and the Allied Services was appointed in June 1941 by the Minister without Portfolio with terms of reference “to undertake, with special reference to the interrelation of schemes, a survey of existing national schemes of social insurance and the allied services including workmen's compensation, and to make recommendations”. The committee was chaired by Sir William Beveridge and he soon came to dominate the review. His biographer, Jose Harris, claims this was because “the official members were all heavily engaged on other aspects of wartime administration, most of them had been evacuated out of London, and none of them had the time to prepare detailed alternatives to Beveridge's proposals” (Harris, 1977, p 385). As a result, it was decided that the final report should be signed by Beveridge alone and it became widely known as the Beveridge Report.

The report proposed a comprehensive system of insurance to meet the financial needs of those in sickness, unemployment and old age. It also envisaged the creation of some form of national health service and the replacement of the remaining poor law legislation. The report reflected a continuation of previous trends in state intervention rather than any really dramatic change in form and content.