A sound knowledge of social policy is essential for effective social Essay

A sound knowledge of social policy is essential for effective social work practice - Essay Example Implementing social policy consists of using the rules and regulations of governments to directly impact the welfare of citizens by providing them with income or services such as social insurance, public assistance, healthcare, welfare services and adequate housing (Marshall, 1965). This paper proposes to evaluate the importance of social policy for effective social work practice. The relationship between social policy and social work, the influences of political processes, the application of social policy and theory to a range of current social issues and problems especially related to social inclusion and welfare rights will be identified. The concept of the government taking responsibility for the citizens’ problems has a long history, though the term welfare state has come into use only since 1941. In Britain in 1942, William Beveridge published Social Insurance and Allied Services commonly known as the Beveridge Report. This seminal document was crucial in turning Great Britain into a welfare state (Macarov, 1995). Labour elected in July 1945 established a new welfare system by implementing the main proposals of William Beveridge’s path-breaking report. Labour replaced the multitude of schemes for the unemployed, the old and the sick with a single unified scheme which essentially remains to this day. Other than for pensions, the Act was less generous than what had been advocated by Beveridge. The low levels of benefit caused many people to rely on National Assistance â€Å"because retirement, unemployment and insurance benefits were pitched too low and did not provide separately for housing costs† (Brivati & Bale, 1997). The new National Health Service (NHS) which gave the medical profession representation and control over spending resulted in spiralling costs in the late 1940s. Comparatively, education policy as the 1944