The devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK was exacerbated by fault-lines in the welfare state and public services that developed in the previous five years, according to a major new LSE report funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
A wide-ranging programme of research, co-led by Dr Polly Vizard and the late Sir John Hills CBE, has identified the key areas of concern, as well as insights about what is required as Britain transitions into the recovery phase from the pandemic. Its message is clear: social disinvestment is inefficient and carries a heavy price.
The research covered ten major areas of social policy: social security, employment, early years, education, higher education, health, adult social care, homelessness and complex needs, physical safety and security, and social mobility. It identifies the major weaknesses and structural limitations of the welfare state and public services on the eve of the pandemic, and assesses the pre-existing patterns in trends in social inequalities that existed in early 2020.
The report found that Employment reached a sustained high level and participation in higher education was also historically high, but the protective capacity of the welfare state was eroded in multiple ways, especially in relation to working age adults and families.
The public spending deficit was reduced but resource, workforce and capacity pressures built up across multiple public services simultaneously, resulting in a failure to meet current needs, compromising quality, and eroding the resilience of public service to shocks.
The welfare state and public services continued to adapt to the rising and different needs and circumstances of the 21st century, but not fully. For example, Universal Credit being digitalised proved to be an important advantage when the pandemic struck. The NHS stands out internationally as being highly equitable, while increased focus on integrated care and mental health were important policy advances. But unmet need for social care in England was high on the eve of the pandemic.
While there was more emphasis on skills in the context of the post-Brexit agenda, social investment from childhood years through to adult training continued to be given insufficient priority.
Looking across ten areas of social policy on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was mounting evidence of a slowdown in social progress and a widening of deep structural inequalities across multiple dimensions of life.
Mark Franks, Director of Welfare at the Nuffield Foundation, said: “The government’s desire to ‘level-up’ is often discussed in terms of narrowing the gap in economic performance between London and the South East on the one hand, and the rest of the UK on the other. But where people live is only part of the picture – there are huge variations in opportunity, wealth, and well-being across many other dimensions, such as ethnicity, social background, age, gender and disability, many of which intersect and reinforce each other. This report provides a unique analysis of the major weaknesses and structural limitations of the welfare state and public services that existed even before the pandemic and illustrates both the scale and urgency of the action required to build a society that provides a good quality of life for all, including those people and groups who are currently facing the greatest deprivation.”
