Welfare state and post-war Britain
What's covered
Key facts
The 1944 Education Act introduced free secondary education and selection by the 11-plus exam.
The post-war Labour government under Clement Attlee (1945–1951) nationalised industries and created the NHS.
The 1944 Education Act (Butler Act) introduced free secondary education in England and Wales.
Aneurin (Nye) Bevan, Minister of Health, led the founding of the NHS in 1948.
The 1944 Education Act raised the school-leaving age to 15 and guaranteed free secondary education to that age.
William Beveridge wrote the 1942 report that became the basis of the welfare state.
The Attlee government nationalised major industries including coal, railways, steel, gas (and the Bank of England).
Beveridge identified five "giants" to defeat: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
Coal mines and railways were among the industries the Attlee government brought under state ownership.
The 1942 Beveridge Report proposed a welfare state tackling want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.
Sample questions
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What did the 1944 Education Act introduce?
- •Compulsory university education for all
- ✓Free secondary education and the 11-plus exam
- •Private schools for all British children
- •Religious education as a banned subject
Which 'five giants' did Beveridge identify as evils to fight?
- •Capitalism, sin, debt, war and fear
- •Fascism, communism, idleness, hunger and ignorance
- •Hunger, war, weather, disease and crime
- ✓Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness
Which industries did the post-war Labour government nationalise?
- •Banking, retail and farming exclusively
- ✓Coal, railways, steel and gas
- •Only luxury goods like cars and aircraft
- •The newspaper and broadcasting industries
What core principle made the NHS revolutionary at its founding?
- •Compulsory health insurance bought by employers
- ✓Free healthcare at the point of use for all citizens
- •Private hospitals paid for in cash by patients
- •State-owned hospitals serving only war veterans
What did the 1944 Education Act do?
- •It banned all private schools across the United Kingdom
- •It made attendance at school compulsory until the age of 18
- ✓It made secondary education free for all children in England and Wales
- •It transferred control of all schools to the Catholic Church
Which post-war Labour government nationalised industries and created the NHS?
- ✓The Attlee government from 1945 to 1951
- •The Churchill government from 1951 to 1955 after Labour's defeat
- •The Thatcher government in the early 1980s during privatisation
- •The Wilson government in the late 1960s during economic reform
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