From the Poor Law to well-being

To understand the significance of the Care Act, it is first necessary to understand its antecedents. The Care Act is both a break with the past and a continuation of some long-established approaches to administering state social policy.

For 60 years, the legal framework governing adult social care in England and Wales was the National Assistance Act 1948. It marked the end of the Poor Law in this country. The Poor Law lasted – albeit with reforms – for 350 years. The first Poor Law legislation was enacted during the reign of Elizabeth I. It made provision for the relief of the ‘impotent poor’. Feudal in character and inconsistently applied, the focus was on ‘setting the poor on work’, not on confining people to the workhouse, which would come later. The system remained in place with minor amendment until the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.

The 1834 New Poor Law was born out of the Industrial Revolution, rapid population growth and the shift from the country to the towns and cities. It was based on two principles: first, less eligibility – the poor were to be treated less favourably than an ‘independent labourer’; and, second, the workhouse test meant that there would be no relief outside of the workhouse. A Poor Law Commission was established to provide national oversight of the system.

Punitive in character and often appalling in its execution, the workhouse system was intended to act as a deterrent, stigmatising the poor. Despite much debate in the early 20th century, a Royal Commission in 1909 left the essentials of the Poor Law unchanged. However, while Beatrice Webb's minority report (HMG, 1909), which made the case for a ‘national minimum of civilised life’, was rejected at the time, it was influential on the thinking of the 1942 Beveridge Report.