2015-05-26
380
План
1. Social problems.
2. The Health Service.
3. Social benefits.
4. The family.
Cultural and institutional terms.
1.Social problems.
Britain’s population has been changing in age and compositions since the second world war. Fluctuations in fertility have serious implications for the health services and education, as well as employment. The post-war ‘baby boom’ was followed by a relative decline in births leading to changes in the balance between the age groups. Now Britain’s population is one of the oldest in Europe and getting older. Other important problems include: persistence of class distinctions, growing inequality in terms of income, unemployment, immigration (integration of ethnic minorities), loss of role models by the young (especially boys from working class backgrounds) who may feel confused and uncertain as a result.
2.The Health Service.
The NHS was set up in 1948 to provide free medical treatment to anyone who needs it. The system rests on a network of GPs (General Practitioners, or family doctors). Besides, there exist large numbers of hospitals and community health services. Over 80 per cent of the costs of the NHS are funded out of the income tax system, the balance is paid for out of the National Insurance contributions and from the standard prescription charges for some kinds of services. The cost of maintaining the NHS has always been very high. Some recent trends, such as the growth of the proportion of older people in the population and new treatments and drugs which tend to be expensive, have further exacerbated the problems of the health service.
3.Social benefits.
The British ‘welfare state’ provides a wide range of benefits to various groups of people with special needs or problems. The state earnings-related pension scheme provides protection for the elderly against destitution. There exist unemployment benefits, child benefits, etc. The local authorities provide institutional accommodation to the elderly while at the same time supporting services designed to encourage them to live at home, e.g. the home delivery of hot meals (‘meals on wheels’), domestic help, laundry services and adaptations in the home like fixing handrails, etc. It is a fundamental principle of the system to encourage the elderly and the disabled to live in the community, as far as possible.
4.The family.
The nuclear family is still considered the ideal arrangement, even by the young, but in fact it has been in decline for the last few decades: only 40 per cent of the population live in this way. The most important trends in the area of family life: an increasing proportion of people living together (cohabiting) before marriage or instead of being formally married; a drop in the overall number of marriages; a high divorce rate; a high number of single-parent families; an increase in the number of ‘non-marital’ babies (born outside marriage).
Cultural and institutional terms. The welfare state; a social benefit; a child (unemployment) benefit; the NHS; a GP; the National Insurance; ‘meals on wheels’; non-marital babies.
Questions:
1. What are the main aims of the ‘welfare state’ in Britain?
2. What groups of people benefit most from the welfare state?
3. What are the reasons for the success of the NHS?
4. What are the most common causes for the discontent with the NHS in some sections of the population?
5. What social trends place additional burdens on the welfare state?
References:
Левашова В. А. Современная Британия. М.: Высшая школа, 2007.
McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005.
