The document discusses the development of family policy and legislation in the UK over the past 100 years. Key acts and reports that shaped the modern welfare state include the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, William Beveridge's 1942 report which led to the NHS and welfare benefits, and the Children Act of 1989. Sociological perspectives that have influenced understandings of the family include functionalism, Marxism, and feminism. Family theories such as Bowlby's attachment theory and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory also provide frameworks for analyzing the relationship between children, families and their environments.

1. Family Theoretical perspectives

2. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
 One system of poor relief across the country
 Outdoor relief should be ended
 Parishes should join together to form a Union to build a
large workhouse between them for all Paupers
 Relief only if Paupers entered the Workhouse
 The Workhouses must have lower conditions than the
poorest paid laborer.

3. Government Reforms from 1906
 Act to allow free school meals 1906
 School medical Services 1907
 The Child and Young Persons Act 1908
 National Insurance Act 1911
 The Beveridge Report 1942
 The National Health Service 1948

4. William Beveridge’s 1942 report ‘Social Insurance
and Allied Services
recommended fighting five ‘giant evils’:
 want,
 disease,
 ignorance,
 squalor
 idleness.

5. William Beveridge’s 1942 report ‘Social Insurance
and Allied Services
This led to the four pillars of the welfare state:
 the National Health Service
 universal housing
 state security (benefits)
 universal education

6. 100 years of landmarks
 1908 – Children Act
 1933 – Children and young Person’s Act
 1948 – Children Act
 1969 – Children and Young Persons Act
 1973 – Report into the death of Maria Colwell
 1989 – Children Act
 1997 – New Labour elected
 2001 – Murder of Victoria Climbié
 2003 – Every Child Matters
 2004 – Children Act
 2007 – Children’s Plan

7. Functionalist – Ronald Fletcher argues
 The Welfare State supports the family in performing
its functions more effectively. Consensus view.

8. Criticisms of the functionalist view
 Functionalists assume all family members benefit from
social policies – Feminists say they benefit men at the
expense of women
 March of progress idea – Marxists say the clock can be
turned back and benefits to poor families can be cut
e.g. current cut of 10% tax

9. New Right
 Criticise many government policies for undermining the
family.
 Charles Murray argues that many benefits, especially to
lone parents, offer perverse incentives – that is they reward
irresponsible and anti-social behaviour
 Policies encourage a dependency culture
Perverse incentives
• Benefits:
• encourage fathers to abandon their financial responsibilities
• Lack of a male role model leads to rising crime and delinquency
• Housing
• encourages teenage girls to get pregnant

10. New Right solution
 Cut welfare spending and tighten the restrictions on
who can get benefits
 Introduce the Child Support Agency (CSA)
 The less the state interferes in families the better
family life will be.

11. Criticisms of the New Right
 By Feminists – it is an attempt to justify a return to the
patriarchal nuclear family and confine women to a
domestic role
 It assumes the Patriarchal nuclear family is ‘natural’
and not a social construct
 Cutting benefits would cause greater poverty.

12. New Labour
 Their ideas have moved nearer to the New Right than Old
Labour! They support the traditional family, marriage and
reducing benefits.
However they changed the law to:
 Allow cohabiting couples, including gay couples, to adopt
 Taxation and minimum wage policies aim to lift children
out of poverty
But
 Many benefits are means tested

13. Feminists
 Criticise the state for assuming that ‘normal’
families are based on marriage
 They assume it is a patriarchal nuclear family.
(Hilary Land)
 This makes it difficult for people to live in other
family types.
 Policies reinforce existing patriarchal roles e.g.
 Tax benefits
 Custody of children
 Maternity leave - Diana Leonard

14. Criticisms of Feminists
 Not all policies are aimed at patriarchy
 Equal pay
 Sex discrimination laws
 Benefits for lone parents
 Rights to divorce
All challenge this.

15. Marxism
 Do not think that policies are part of the march of
progress idea. They only benefit the elite (Conflict
view)
 Improvements for the working class have only
happened due to their own struggles and can easily
be lost in the future
 They were often only brought about because they
benefited capitalism

16. Family trends
 More diversity in families
 Fewer marriages
 Starting families happens later in life
 Children stay living at home longer
 More people live longer
 Different attitudes to sex and infertility
 Changes in economic circumstances
 The definition of the family has been stretched
British Social attitudes survey see.
http://www.statistics.go.uk/glance/#society

17. 17
Attachment
‘a lasting psychological connectedness between
human beings’
(Bowlby, 1969 p194)

18. 18
Bowlby findings.
 Loving relationship with 1 particular person
(usually mother)
 The resulting attachment must continue unbroken
for first 3 yrs
 Should ideally be centred within the child’s own
family and should be offered adequate stimulation

19. 19
Characteristics of
Attachment
 Proximity maintenance
 Safe haven
 Secure base
 Separation distress

20. 20
Sociological Perspectives (nurture).
Belief-Behaviour cannot be separated from the social
context
 Focus on
 The importance of social and economic factors in
influencing our development
 Bronfenbrenner (1979)
 Holistic view of the person in her or his environment
 Can incorporate other theories or approaches
 Seen as an organising framework for theories

21. 21
Ecological Approach. Bronbrenfenner
(1979)
 Acknowledges a child doesn't develop in isolation
 Describes the impact of the Childs environment on its
development
 Model consisted of three concentric circles … one inside
the other
 Inner: Microsystem
 Middle: Exosystem
 Outer: Macrosystem

22. Conclusions
Policy and legislation governing
the relationship between the
family and the ‘State’ has
developed over the last 100 years.
There are 1000’s of laws and
policies: Some influential ones:
1. Poor Law Amendment Act
2. ‘The Beveridge Report’ (1942)
3. The Children Act 1989
4. Every Child Matters (2003)
‘Macro’ Sociological Perspectives:
Functionalism: ‘Institutions’ (such as the
family) exist because they serve a function.
Marxism: The way in which society is
organised (structured) benefits the elite and
oppresses the majority.
Feminism: Society is unfair towards women.
Male dominance (patriarchy) is reflected in
social structures including the Family
Family Specific Theories
Bowlby: Attachment (bonding) between infants
and main care giver is crucial. Poor attachments
in infant childhood determine what we become
in later life.
Bronfenbrenner: The child’s behaviour and
thinking can only be understood with reference
to the social/ecological environment in which
they live. This environment shapes their
thoughts and behaviour.