The administration of welfare in the UK

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:

• the breakup of the administration into agencies, so that the efficiency of each part of the administration can be assessed individually. Examples are NHS trusts and the administrative agencies responsible for Social Security.
• the introduction of 'management', with managers being responsible for running agencies in a business-like fashion; this is widespread in health and personal social services.

· 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 services 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.

Scotland

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 Office of the First Minister
• Finance and sustainable growth
• Education and lifelong learning
• Health and well-being
• Justice, and
• Rural affairs and the environment

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

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

• legal restraints. Local authorities have long been forbidden by law to do anything which is not expressly permitted by Parliament; local authorities which wanted to undertake any special initiative outside their existing powers ('ultra vires') had to promote a private Act of Parliament. Recently both England and Scotland have introduced a general power for local authorities to further the welfare of the population, but this is a new provision and it has not yet led to radical change.
• advice - the work of local government is increasingly regimented by central government instructions;
• inspection and audit - councillors can be personally fined for breaching audit rules, a situation which would not be tolerated by national politicians; and
• financial controls. Despite the existence of a "council tax", local government has very limited discretion in its ability to raise money, and it is not permitted to exceed central government limits. Loans cannot be taken without express sanction. Central governments can make the availability of grants conditional on compliance with their policy.

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.

The Poor Law

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

• a compulsory poor rate
• the creation of 'overseers' of relief
• provision for 'setting the poor on work'.

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.

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:

• less eligibility: the position of the pauper must be 'less eligible' than that of the labourer
• the workhouse test: no relief outside the workhouse.

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.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 827