Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction: scope and argument of the book
- two The conditions for child poverty: context and chronology
- three A fit occupation for children? Children and work
- four Workers of the future: the education of children
- five Discovering child poverty: child poverty and the family to 1945
- six Rediscovering child poverty: child poverty and policy from 1945
- seven Conclusion: child poverty on the agenda
- References
- Index
six - Rediscovering child poverty: child poverty and policy from 1945
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction: scope and argument of the book
- two The conditions for child poverty: context and chronology
- three A fit occupation for children? Children and work
- four Workers of the future: the education of children
- five Discovering child poverty: child poverty and the family to 1945
- six Rediscovering child poverty: child poverty and policy from 1945
- seven Conclusion: child poverty on the agenda
- References
- Index
Summary
By the beginning of the postwar period there appeared to be state commitment to a role in supporting children and families with children. However, the measures that had achieved this had not been unequivocal. Moreover, the postwar welfare state began to come under pressure relatively soon and one of the casualties of this was the commitment to children. This chapter explores the revelation that poverty, even child poverty, was not solved, and the subsequent attempts to communicate that fact. This involved both campaigns for increases in support and ongoing attempts to define more precisely the extent of poverty, and to render it conceptually meaningful to policy makers and the public alike.
Transformed lives?
The beginning of the postwar period may have been marked by continued food rationing and an acute housing shortage, but it was also the start of an era in which all families with two or more children received a benefit recognising some of the costs of bringing up children, in which all state schooling was guaranteed to be free up to the age of 15, and in which many other services were also provided within schools to all pupils, either freely, such as the school medical service and milk, or not, such as school meals (although these were free to those in low-income families). Moreover, the 1940s also saw the introduction of a National Health Service in 1948, following the Act of 1946. This opened up possibilities of healthcare to both women and children that had previously been inaccessible due to the limitations of the insurance system. Maternal and child health improved substantially and particular provision in relation, for example, to spectacles and aids for those with hearing impairments now became possible for many families, transforming lives.
Children, whose importance as the future of the nation had been stressed in the plans for evacuation and whose sometimes shocking poverty had been revealed by the carrying out of the programme, seemed to have been confirmed as a core concern of the state. The promises of the 1924 League of Nations Declaration seemed to be being realised, with cross-party support for this position.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Discovering Child PovertyThe Creation of a Policy Agenda from 1800 to the Present, pp. 89 - 114Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2005