The Coalition Government and Social Policy: Restructuring the Welfare State

✍ Scribed by Hugh Bochel (editor); Martin Powell (editor)

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 401
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

How did the UK Coalition Government’s policies differ from previous Conservative (or Labour) Government policies? How did the Liberal Democrats influence them? And what can this tell us about the likely policy direction of the Conservative government elected in May 2015? Responding to the political and social policy changes made between 2010-15 this book considers the relationship between the two coalition parties to provide a critical assessment of how their policies affected the British welfare state, including the impact of ‘austerity’. Looking beyond 2015, the contributors consider what the implications of these changes may be for social policy, both the challenges and opportunities, which will present themselves in the future.

✦ Table of Contents

THE COALITION GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL POLICY
Contents
Notes on contributors
1. The transformation of the welfare state? The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government and social policy
Introduction
Towards coalition
Interpreting the coalition government, 2010–15
Locating the coalition
Conclusions
2. The coalition government, public spending and social policy
Introduction
A ‘coalition’ government?
Patterns of public spending, 2010–15
Welfare and public spending in the UK
3. The changing governance of social policy
Introduction
Why the governance and mechanisms of policymaking and implementation matter
Governance under the Conservatives, 1979–97
Governance under Labour, 1997–2010
The governance of social policy under the coalition government, 2010–15
Conclusions
4. The coalition, social policy and public opinion
Introduction
Switching off the thermostat: attitudes towards tax and spending
Public priorities and the hardening of attitudes towards benefits recipients
Will someone turn the thermostat on?
Conclusions
5. Health policy and the coalition government
Introduction
Key themes of coalition policy
The coalition government’s record on health
What factors influenced policy?
Conclusions
6. The coalition government, the general election and the policy ratchet in education: a reflection on the ‘ghosts’ of policy past, present and yet to come
Introduction
Coalition education policy
From ‘great expectations’ to ‘managing expectations’?
Conclusions: looking ahead
7. Coalition housing policy in England
Introduction
Background
Coalition housing policies
Conclusions
8. Social security under the coalition and Conservatives: shredding the system for people of working age; privileging pensioners
Introduction
Background: the 2010 context
Key coalition policies
The impacts of reform
Underlying themes and features
The influence of the Liberal Democrats
Comparison with the previous Labour governments (1997–2010)
Comparison with previous Conservative governments (1979–97)
Conservative majority government (2015–)
Conclusions
9. Welfare and active labour market policies in the UK: the coalition government approach
Introduction
The reforms
The Conservative-led coalition government’s approach
Conclusion
10. ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’: adult social care under the coalition
Introduction
Adult social care under the coalition: from initial neglect to the Care Act 2014
The impact of austerity
Long-term care
Joint working between health and social care
Prevention
Personalisation
Conclusions: reflections on the coalition government
11. Family policy: the Mods and Rockers
Introduction
From New Labour to the coalition
Stable marriage and stable families
Targeting: early and turnaround intervention
An unfettered Conservative government
12. One step forward, two steps back: children, young people and the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition
Introduction
Labour’s Third Way child-centred approach
Towards the coalition’s Programme for government
Reduced cash support for children and young people
Reframing childhood disadvantage, refocusing social investment
Child protection and children’s social care reforms
Conclusions
13. The coalition and criminal justice
Introduction
Protest and disorder
Government and police: friends no more
The uses of ‘austerity’
The crime drop and the sceptics
Separate ways
Separate spheres of injustice?
Legacies
14. Equalities: the impact of welfare reform and austerity by gender, disability and age
Introduction
A gendered analysis of spending cuts
Disability: the cumulative impact of workfare and austerity
The impact of austerity by age
The human face of austerity
Conclusions
15. Social policy, the devolved administrations and the UK coalition government
Introduction
Context for proposals and action on financial and constitutional powers
Operational context
Programmes of government and policies
Social policy and the devolved administrations 2010–2015: categories of social policy development
Conclusion
16. Conclusions
Introduction
Which way for the coalition government?
Comparisons with previous governments
Coalition partners?
From coalition to Conservative government
Conclusions
Index