The three themes of evacuation, hospital service and help for the victims of air attack have largely dominated the account of the effects of the war on the ordinary, peacetime social services. In the opening part of this chapter, however, some of the more important developments in the field of social policy are briefly noted; these, set against the background of government policy to protect and sustain the civilian population from air bombardment, serve as an introduction to a tentative analysis of the total effects of the war on the people’s health.

It would, in any relative sense, be true to say that by the end of the Second World War the government had, through the agency of newly established or existing services, assumed and developed a measure of direct concern for the health and wellbeing of the population which, by contrast with the role of government in the 1930s, was little short of remarkable. No longer did concern rest on the belief that, in respect to many social needs, it was proper to intervene only to assist the poor and those who were unable to pay for services of one kind and another. Instead, it was increasingly regarded as a proper function or even obligation of government to ward off distress and strain among not only the poor but almost all classes of society. And, because the area of responsibility had so perceptibly widened, it was no longer thought sufficient to provide through various branches of social assistance a standard of service hitherto considered appropriate for those in receipt of poor relief – a standard inflexible in administration and attuned to a philosophy which regarded individual distress as a mark of social incapacity.

That all were engaged in war, whereas only some were afflicted with poverty and disease, had much to do with the less constraining, less discriminating scope and quality of the wartime social services. Damage to homes and injuries to persons were not less likely among the rich than the poor and so, after the worst of the original defects in policy had been corrected – such as the belief that only the poor would need help when their homes were smashed – the assistance provided by the government to counter the hazards of war carried little social discrimination and was offered to all groups in the community.