Remit of Nhs

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The National Health Service was founded on the 5th July 1948. Winston Churchill was the prime minister at the time .The government decided to commission a report, addressing the ways in which Britain should be rebuilt after the Second World War had ended. The Beveridge report of 1942 (written by William Beveridge) identified five main points that needed to be addressed. These were Want (addressed poverty) disease (the lack of healthcare) ignorance (no education) squalor (represented the lack of housing) and idleness (unemployment). A Lot of politicians were confident that Winston Churchill would lead the conservatives to success in the general election. However this was not the case, clement Attlee of the labour party introduced all the courses of action needed that were stated in the Beveridge report. This is how the birth of the NHS occurred. There was to be many benefits slowly introduced. Houses were rebuilt, children went to secondary education and Britain was generally happy that someone was taking control. Until 1906 there was not a great deal of help offered to workers and their families. There had only been the likes of the workhouses. The workhouses provided food, shelter and a wage for many poverty stricken families. They had the idea that if they came into the city and got jobs working in the workhouse, that they would have a good life this was not the case as they soon found out. The workers were fed scraps of basic food, their conditions horrific, but it kept them fed and housed. Many of these families got separated once they had arrived and the grim reality faced them. Most jobs carried out within the workhouse either consisted of laundry, street cleaning and field work for farmers. Infection and disease was higher for those cleaning the streets, dealing with open sewers as there was no sewer systems built in London yet to deal with peoples waste. Forms of help did start to arrive for the poverty stricken of London in the way of a Christian couple called William and Catherine booth. Together they built the Salvation Army .They provided clean clothes, shoes and food for the poor. They believed they could spread the message that Christians should help other less fortunate than themselves. Another great charity that was founded was Barnardos; set up by Dr John Barnardo .He helped the vulnerable children of London. He fed them, clothed them and he gave them a chance of a decent education. A famous example of this can be found in Charles dickens work and his book Oliver Twist, in this he portrayed a very true picture of how London was and how children were treated. Huge changes became apparent when Asquith was elected prime minister and Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Together they introduced government taxes, and also took on the role of protecting children ( The children’s charter) they did this by starting the scheme of School meas. All children received at least one hot meal a day. School nurses became appointed to deal with the health of the young and a new law which prevented the exploitation of children was also set in place .Such as not being allowed to beg on the streets anymore they was not allowed in public houses, and borstals were built so that children did not have to got into prisons. The biggest introduction was that of national insurance tax. Workers paid a tax that would cover them in the event of illness within the work place. However there was a huge disadvantage to the new benefits brought in. If a worker who paid his NI tax fell ill he was treated but none of his family got the same benefit. The tax was only for workers. School meals did not become a compulsory benefit, only if the local authority decided that they would introduce them to the schools in their borough. Even though there was a school nurse there was still no health service until 1912 and the new law to protect children was going to take a long time to put into place .Things like unemployment benefit only...
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