Social Reforms Between 1906-1914

1901 Words8 Pages
‘Between 1906-1914 the real causes of poverty were tackled successfully by government action.’ To what extent would you agree with this statement? This type of question asks you wither the Liberals through their social reforms of 1906-1914 dealt with the 4 main causes of poverty as stated by Booth and Rowntree. These were: • The Young • Old Age • Sickness • Unemployment What do I do first? The first thing you have to do before you can agree or disagree with this statement is say what the real causes of poverty were. You have plenty of evidence of this. For example, the findings of Booth and Rowntree. Once you have identified the main causes of poverty of Booth and Rowntree, you can go on to consider the policies…show more content…
The New Liberals desire for change was backed up by the social investigations of Booth and Rowntree. These men discovered that the main causes of poverty were outwith the control of the individual, such as old age; sickness; unemployment and low wages. However, did the burst of legislation carried out by the ‘Liberal government from 1906-1914 to help the young, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed and low earners successfully tackle the problem of poverty at the turn of the 20th…show more content…
Here deal with the three Acts passed to help children. State the terms of each Act, then tell of the successes, with evidence before moving on to its failures. The first area of reform dealt with by the Liberal party was concerned with the wellbeing of children, which was not one of the major causes of poverty highlighted by Booth and Rowntree. Children became a target for reform as they were the future building blocks of society. The first direct move to alleviate the plight of deprived children came in 1906 with the passing of the Education (provision of meals) Act. This allowed local authorities to increase local taxes to cover the cost of providing free school meals for children in schools. It was successful in that children lost weight during the summer holidays, suggesting that school meals had become an important part of their diet. However, sadly this act did not achieve its goal of making sure all children in education received one nutritional meal a day. This was due to the fact that the Education Act did not force local authorities to provide free meals. This is clear by the fact that by 1911 less than a third of all education authorities were using rates to provide meal provision. (This has given you a start, find more positives and negatives, with

More about Social Reforms Between 1906-1914

Open Document