Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:15:17.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Public Assistance Institutions to ‘Sunshine Hotels’

Changing State perceptions about residential care for elderly people, 1939–48*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Robin Means  and
Randall Smith
Robin Means
Affiliation:
Research Associate, School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol, Rodney Lodge, Grange Road, Bristol BS8 4EA, England.
Randall Smith
Affiliation:
J Senior Lecturer, School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article traces the development of residential care for elderly people in the period 1939 to 1948. It begins by looking at the nature of such institutions in the period just prior to the Second World War and then discusses the complex impact of war upon such provision. Particular attention is paid to how evacuation hostels, run by local authorities and voluntary organisations, changed notions about the role of the state in the care of elderly people. The paper concludes by looking at how such changed notions were incorporated into the 1948 National Assistance Act.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1983 , pp. 157 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 See for example the chapters by Walker, A. and Wicks, M. from Community Care: the Family, the State and Social Policy, Walker, A. (ed.), Basil Blackwell and Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1983.Google Scholar

2 For an interesting discussion of the pressure often placed upon female relatives see Nissel, M. and Bonnerjea, L.Family Care of the Handicapped Elderly: Who Pays?, Policy Studies Institute, London, 1982.Google Scholar

3 Clough, R.Old Age Homes, Allen and Unwin, London, 1981, p. 12.Google Scholar

4 Engels, F.The Condition of the Working Class in England, Panther, London, 1969 edition, p. 308.Google Scholar

5 Crowther, M.The Workhouse System 1834–1923, Batsford, London, 1981.Google Scholar

6 Digby, A.Pauper Palaces, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1978.Google Scholar

7 Quoted in Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, The Majority Report, H.M.S.O., London, 1909, p. 214.

8 For a general discussion of the lack of provision for the chronic sick in this period see Abel-Smith, B.The Hospitals, 1800–1948, Heinemann, London, 1964.Google Scholar

9 These reports are reviewed in Maclntyre, S. Old Age as a Social Problem, pp. 41–67 from Health Care and Health Knowledge, Dingwall, R. et al. (eds), Croom Helm, London, 1977.Google Scholar

10 Phillipson, C.The Emergence of Retirement, Working papers in Sociology (No. 14), University of Durham, undated.Google Scholar

11 Gilbert, B.British Social Policy 1919–39, Batsford, London, 1970, p. 229.Google Scholar

12 Roberts, N.Our Future Selves, Allen and Unwin, London, 1970, pp. 23–25.Google Scholar

13 Birmingham Post, 27 June 1940.

14 City of Birmingham, Public Assistance Committee: Handbook and Diary, 1940, p. 15.

15 Matthews, O., Housing the InfirmGoogle Scholar, published by the author and originally distributed through W. H. Smith & Son, undated.

16 Ibid. p. 13.

17 DHSS files, 94OO3/2A. Public Assistance Institutions. Reception and Welfare.

18 DHSS files, 94003/7/5. Poor Law Amendment Act 1938: Representations by Associations of Local Authorities.

19 Samson, E.Old Age in the New World, Pilot Press, London, 1944, p. 15.Google Scholar

20 Lord, Amulree. Adding Life to Years, National Council of Social Service, London, 1951. P. 12.Google Scholar

21 McEwan, P. and Laverty, S.The Chronic Sick and Elderly in Hospital, Bradford (B) Hospital Management Committee, 1949, p. 7.Google Scholar

22 Ibid. p. 8.

23 Roberts, N.op. cit. p. 26.Google Scholar

24 Marsh, D.The Changing Social Structure of England and Wales, 1871–1961, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1965 edition, pp. 22–31.Google Scholar

25 Quoted in Williams, K.From Pauperism to Poverty, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1981, p. 206.Google Scholar

26 Titmuss, R., Problems of Social Policy, History of the Second World War, H.M.S.O., London, 1976 edition, pp. 3–44 and pp. 183–202.Google Scholar

27 Morris, C.Public health during the first three months of war, Social Work (London) (01 1940), pp. 186–196.Google Scholar

28 Titmuss, R.op. cit. p. 448.Google Scholar

29 Infection in the Shelter, The Lancet 12 October 1940, p. 455.

30 Ministry of Health and Ministry of Home Security, Recommendations of Lord Horder's Committee regarding the Conditions in Air-Raid Shelters with Special Reference to Health, Cmd. 6234, H.M.S.O., London 1940, p. 3. For a more detailed account of shelter conditions and how this led to setting up of the committee, see Lord Horder, The Modern Troglodyte, The Lancet (19 April 1941), pp. 499–502.

31 PRO files, HLG 7/395, Care of the Homeless: Accommodation of Aged and Infirm, memorandum from Wrigley to Lindsay dated 12 April 1941.

32 Ministry of Health (1940), Circular 2060, Evacuation of Civil Population - Special Scheme. A copy of this circular and other relevant information is in DHSS files, 94003/1/47, Public Assistance Institutions- General.

33 Titmuss, , op. cit. p. 501.Google Scholar

34 DHSSfile 94003/5/40, Inmates: Clothing: Memo C.G.I. 83.

35 Nuffield Foundation, Old People, Report of a Survey Committee on the Problems of Ageing and the Care of Old People under the chairmanship of Rowntree, B. Seebohm, Arno Press, New York 1980 edition.Google Scholar

36 Ibid. p. 63.

37 Ibid. p. 64.

38 These clippings are collected in DHSS files 99063/3/2, Social Welfare: Aged and Infirm: General Correspondence.

39 NufHeld Foundation, op. cit. p. 75.Google Scholar

40 PRO files, HLG 7/322, Evacuation of Aged and Infirm. Memorandum from Howell James (Chief General Inspector, Ministry of Health) to Ure (Assistance Board), dated 23 January 1941.

41 Ibid. These figures are contained in Memorandum R.O.A. 737 entitled Hostels for Old People, dated 21 July 1942.

42 Ibid. These figures are also provided by R.O.A. 737.

43 Age Concern Archives. Box One, Historical and Early Activities. Pamphlet on L.C.C. Rest Homes dated November 1941.

44 Ibid.

45 PRO files, HLG 7/395 (see n. 31), Minutes of Committee on the Aged and Infirm, dated 12 March 1941.

46 Ibid. Memorandum from P. Barter to Sir Arthur Rucker, dated 5 May 1941.

47 For a description of the setting up of the OPWC see Roberts, N. (op. cit.), pp. 30–40.Google Scholar

48 PRO files, AST. 7/557, Welfare: Homes and Hostels.

49 Ibid. See correspondence between P. Barter (Ministry of Health) and Stuart King (Assistance Board) between August and October 1941.

50 Ibid. Copy of speech of Lord Soulbury (Chairman, Assistance Board) to NCSS conference on ‘The Welfare of the Aged’, dated 31 December 1941.

51 Age Concern Archives. Box Two, Historical and Early Activities. Letter from Stuart King (Assistance Board) to Secretary, NCSS dated 22 September 1941.

52 DHSS files, 99063/11/1A, Social Welfare: National Council of Social Service: General Correspondence and Executive Committee 1940–1946. Minutes of meeting between Ministry of Health officials and representatives of Public Assistance Departments from the London Region, dated 24 April 1942.

53 Ibid. Memorandum from Turner, dated 28 January 1943.

54 Ibid. Memorandum from Lindsay, dated 23 September 1942.

55 Beveridge Report, Social Insurance and Allied Services, Cmd. 6404, H.M.S.O. London, 1942.Google Scholar

56 Rackstraw, M. An Old People's Hostel, Originally published in January 1944 by Social Work (London), reprinted by OPWC, p. 3.Google Scholar

57 Ibid. p. 4.

58 DHSS files, 99063/3/5, Accommodation For and Care of the Aged. Contains copy of C.G.I. 115, dated 4 September 1945.

59 Margaret Hill was a member of the OPWC. She describes her wartime experience of running hostels in Hill, M.An Approach to Old Age, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1961, pp. 23–39.Google Scholar

60 DHSS files, 99063/3/9. Hostels for the Aged: Correspondence with the National Association of Administrators of Local Government Establishments.

61 DHSS files 99063/3/2. Social Welfare: Aged and Infirm: General Correspondence. Memorandum from Association of Municipal Corporations dated 12 April 1946.

62 Ibid. Memorandum from Miss Ramsey (secretary, NOPWC) dated 23 July 1946.

63 Ibid. Memorandum from National Association of Local Government Social Welfare Officers, dated 7 October 1946.

64 DHSS files 99063/3/17. Social Welfare: Aged and Infirm: Aged Policy During Interim Period.

65 Ministry of Health (1947), Circular 49/47, Care of the Aged in Public Assistance Homes and Institutions. A copy of this circular and further background material can be found in DHSS files 99063/3/17 (op. cit.).

66 Curtis Report. Report of the Care of Children Committee, Cmd 6922, H.M.S.O. London, 1946. This had been very critical of the treatment of children in care by public assistance institutions and other types of state institutional provision.

67 DHSS files 99063/3/17 (see n. 64). Minutes of meeting dated 9 October 1947.

68 Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, Vol. 444, 24 November 1947, columns 1603–1718.

69 Brown, M. The Development of Local Authority Services from 1948–1965 under Part III of the National Assistance Act. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester, 1972, p. 17.Google Scholar

70 Beveridge Report, op. cit., paras 164–165.Google Scholar

71 PRO files, MH 80/47. Reference to the setting up of the Rucker Committee is given in ‘National Assistance Bill: Memorandum of the Minister of Health and the Minister of National Insurance’, dated March 1946.

72 PRO files CAB 134/698. A copy of the Rucker Report is attached to the Minutes of the Seventh Meeting of the Social Services Committee, dated 12 July 1946.

73 These press comments are collected in DHSS files, 94018/1/23 on Break-up of the Poor Law: press comments.

74 Hansard: Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, vol. 444, 24 November 1947, column 1609.

75 Ibid, column 1608.

76 Ibid, column 1707.

77 These press comments are also found in DHSS files, 94018/1/23 (see n. 73).

78 See PRO files MH 80/47, especially paper by S. F. Wilkinson (Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Health) on ‘The break up of the Poor Law and the care of children and old people’, dated February 1944.

79 PRO files CAB 134/698, Minutes of the Tenth Meeting of the Social Services Committee, dated 25 September 1946.

80 DHSS files, 94018/1/3. Break up of the Poor Law: National Assistance Bill: the Grant-Aiding of Local Authority Services Under the Bill.

81 Ibid. Letter from Dalton, dated 8 October 1947.

82 Ibid. Letter from Dalton, dated 17 October 1947.

83 Ibid. Letter from Dalton to Bevan, dated 21 October 1947. PRO file CAB 80/49 is also a useful source of information about the grant-aiding arguments.

84 A copy of this press report can be found in DHSS files, 94018/1/23 (see n. 73).

85 Hansard. Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, vol. 444, 24 November 1947, column 1611.

86 Hansard: Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 5 March 1948, column 752.

87 Townsend, P.The Last Refuge, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London (abridged edition), 1964, p. 21.Google Scholar

88 Ibid. p. 39.

89 Riley, D.War in the Nursery, Feminist Review, no. 2 (1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

90 Riley, D. ‘The Free Mothers’: Prenatalism and Working Women in Industry at the end of the last war in Britain, History Workshop Journal, no. 11 (1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91 Assistance Board, Report of the Assistance Board for the Year Ended 31st December 1945, Cmd. 6883, H.M.S.O. London, 1946.Google Scholar

92 Phillipson, , op. cit.Google Scholar

93 Myles, J.The Aged and the Welfare State: An Essay in Political Demography, Paper prepared for the Research Committee on Ageing, International Sociological Association, 8–9 07 1981.Google Scholar

94 Age Concern Archives. Box One, Historical and Early Activities. Undated press release signed by E. Rathbone.

95 PRO files, HLG 7/333, Evacuation (1944): Aged and Infirm Persons Policy.

96 Concern about lack of domestic servants was so great that a committee was set up to look at post-war prospects. See Ministry of Labour and National Service, Report on Post- War Organisation of Private Domestic Employment, Cmd 6650, H.M.S.O. London, 1948.Google Scholar

97 Age Concern Archives. Various material in Boxes 1–4, Historical and Early Activities.

98 DHSS files, 99063/8/1 A. Social welfare: domestic help to householders: Discussions with the Ministry of Labour and National Service.

99 Rackstraw, , op. cit.Google Scholar

100 DHSS files, 99073/1/4. Homes for the Aged: WVS Residential Clubs for Elderly People.

101 Townsend, , op. cit.Google Scholar