Unit name | Social Policy and the Welfare State: Historical Perspectives |
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Unit code | SPOL10011 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | C/4 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Lart |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School for Policy Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
This unit will provide an introduction to the history of British social policy from the Poor Law, through the establishment of the post-war Welfare State, to the end of the Coalition government of 2010-15. It will focus on key areas of social policy such as poverty and social exclusion, health, housing, education, employment and criminal justice. It builds on the earlier mandatory unit ‘Ideologies and concepts of welfare in the contemporary world’ by using the framework of ideologies explained in that unit to analyse the development of British social policy over the historical period covered.
It is organised into three main parts. The first introduces the student to the wider social and economic context of the period covered, and reviews the ideologies of welfare covered in the earlier unit. The second part provides an overview of the evolution of the British Welfare State, providing the historical narrative from the debates around pauperism in the early nineteenth century, through to the end of the Coalition government of 2010 – 15, and showing the development of underlying ideologies and how they manifest in policy. The third section returns to look in detail at specific policy areas, and will explore key points in their histories.
The unit aims:
• To introduce students to the history of British social policy
• To enable students to understand how and why we have the social institutions of welfare that we do.
• To enable students to understand the ways in which ideology has informed the development of those institutions.
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to demonstrate:
Lectures and seminars
Assessment will be against the programme criteria defined for the appropriate level.
Formative assessment: One essay up to 2000 words
Summative assessment : One essay up to 2500 words (100%). The essay will allow the student to demonstrate having met all the learning outcomes of the unit.