14 - Troubling social policy during turbulent times: children and UK Conservative governments since 2015

Summary

Introduction

This chapter reviews developments in social policy and state support for children and teenagers overseen by Conservative governments in the UK from 2015 to 2022 during a period of persistent economic problems, exceptional social policy challenges and increasing political instability (see Chapter 1). The chapter considers three main features of these social policies. First, it foregrounds analysis of the ways social policy agendas and reforms have constructed and addressed childhood disadvantage and child welfare as priority public issues and matters for government concern. Second, it considers government agendas and reforms in these areas, primarily in terms of rights to, and developments in, cash support, state welfare, parental support and, broadly defined, ‘early help’ and community social services. Third, given the focus of this volume, the chapter examines policy goals and reforms pursued by recent Conservative governments. In the chapter, therefore, some discussions concern UK-wide policies (for example related to fiscal, social security and employment policies) and others are about more England-specific policies (for example, related to public and social services).

The chapter initially reflects on the Conservative– Liberal Democrat government of 2010– 15. It highlights the ways in which this period established key tenets of contemporary Conservative Party approaches to social and children's policies, such as austerity, targeted social investment and early intervention, localism, de-bureaucratisation and marketisation. It then turns to review the subsequent continuities, changes and implications of the Conservatives’ agenda as it developed and shifted under successive prime ministers and as it was impacted by, and adapted to, ongoing public spending constraints, systemic economic problems, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter highlights the ongoing significance in recent years of the Conservatives’ welfare state cutbacks, social mobility reforms and child welfare reforms, and, in the context of the pandemic and economic problems, several child-orientated and family-focused crisis interventions. Ideologically, several camps of Conservative and Liberal thinking have influenced the Conservatives’ policy approach (Page, 2015; see also Chapter 1), alongside greater interest in ‘the new welfare paradigm of investing in children’, particularly the more narrowly conceived profitable social investment approach (Lister, 2008).