How Important Is Ideology in the Making of Social Policy - Coursework Example

Critically analyse the influence of ideology on social policy processes and outcomes in 20th and 21st Britain. Paper name: Name: Institution: Introduction This paper is focusing on the role or even the influence that ideology has on the formulation of the policies in the contemporary Britain. In this case, the policy to be focused on is the health policy in the contemporary Britain. The paper examine the influence ideologies have on the interpretation of social problems and issues, how the health policies are implemented, and who decides what is to be done and not to be done. Again, it will also focus on the implementation of the policy, how it is enacted, and the outcomes after the implementation. This paper will be focused on social democracy and Marxism ideologies of welfare. Ideology Ideology is part and parcel of our society as well as the social policies put into place in that, ideology play a vital role in the formulation as well as the implementation of any policy in our contemporary society (Mahon, Walshe and Chambers 2009). Ideology, which refers to unconscious or even conscious set of ideas, constitutes expectations, goals or even the actions of human actors in a society. Ideology comes in as a comprehensive way of looking at things, a vision, or even ideas being proposed mainly by the ruling class or the dominant class in any society, and these ideas are in turn, directed to all the other members of the same society (Naidoo & Wills 2008). Ideology, therefore, in the long run ends up being the influencing and driving force behind the social policies to be formulated and implemented in any given society (Hawkes 2003). In this case, ideologies are seen as ideologies of welfare or of human well-being, and they may assume the forms of social democracy, neo- liberalism or even Marxism (Owen 2011). Social policy Social policy in its own capacity revolves around the study of social welfare, as well as the study of human beings well-being. It also involves studying the social actors’ interactions, social relations as well as the systems that can promote their well-being (Rummery & Coleman 2003). Therefore, social policies are the policies put in place by the government in order to improve the living standards of its citizens (Buse, Mays & Walt 2012). These policies range from health policies, housing policies, social security policies, education policies, personal social care policies, to even economic as well as political policies in a given country. Social policies are coined from the areas or human aspects which are a necessity to all people like health and housing, and they are heavily influenced by the ideologies of welfare present in a society. In our contemporary society, in this case, present day Britain, there is a plurality of opinions about what is right or wrong, and what is not desired or even proper. This plurality is what gives rise to an essential scope for choices and adaptability in any difficult situation (Naidoo & Wills 2008). This gives rise for the need for a common denominator for both the politicians and the common man, which is supported by the majority, so as to keep unity in the society instead of disintegrating it. This therefore, leads to the suggestion, formulations and implementation of social policies. Importance of ideology in the making of health social policy in the 21st Century Britain Social policy, which is a social practice, requires anchoring in some criteria which can simplify and make communication easier, on what is no more seen or considered as the public good as well as what is still considered as the public interest (Haas 2005). Ideology plays a vital role in giving meaning to the different choices and meanings tabled before the politicians as well as the citizens, and in the end it acts as a guiding factor for them whenever faced with critical and complex situations requiring critical decisions on a daily basis (Bambra 2012). Ideologies form a necessary part of communication in both a social and a political discourse. Ideologies facilitate in the identifying political priorities as well as stand points. They also act as a framework that expressively makes interpretation and understanding of social realities easier. In this case, ideologies can become a potential instrument of misunderstanding and justifying irrational and unreasonable decision and actions in case confronted with a challenging situation. In Britain, the health policy comes in as a legacy of private agencies as well as the public’s decisions that has developed over centuries (Rummery & Coleman 2003). The financing and organisation of the health care has been shaped, over the years, by the decisions made by third sector or voluntary organisations, the government as well as the private interests (Ham 2009). The National Health policy in Britain came into being on July 5, 1948. This national health policy was made into existence so as to provide a comprehensive health services range to all and for all people who are in need. In the 20th and the 21st Centuries, the National health policy of Britain has seen different changes and reforms in the bid to provide the best health care for its citizens (Baggot 2011). These reforms and implementations has for ages, been influenced by various ideologies like the Marxism ideology, which suggests that the ideas of the ruling class are in most cases, if not always, the ruling ideas. These reforms are also influenced by the ideology of social democracy, which acts in the interests of the people’s rights, liberty, collective bargaining as well as liberty (Mahon, Walshe and Chambers 2009). A House of Commons Committee in 2012 agreed that the Care Quality Commission was not fully armed to be made the regulator of NHS (House of Commons Public Accounts Committee 2012). This shows how well the Marxism ideology in being applied in Britain’s health sector, in that, the house of commons as well as the government wants to take control of how the NHS and the CQC runs the sector. As much as they may seem to use the social democracy ideology of providing what is the best for the citizens through ensuring their right are met, there is a capitalist aspect in how the problem is interpreted, policies formulated and then implemented (Baggot 2011). The driving force behind these health policies is the ruling class, which according to the Marxism ideology, whose ideas rule. The implementers of this health policy is the government, which in most cases, try to effect and follow social democracy so as to bring in a balance between its citizens and the politicians (Rummery & Coleman 2003). By regulating the NHS, some balance is created whereby; the gap between the social classes is reduced since people from all classes are entitled to equal opportunities and the same health care services and experience (Owen 2011). Social democracy ideologies are usually put in place as a way of tolerating capitalism which is apparent in Britain, by giving people a platform on which to follow and get guidance from. This platform brings in stability in the country which would otherwise have been upheaved during the fight for the factors of production (Mahon, Walshe and Chambers 2009). Clinical governance policy In Britain there has been a problem of many health facilities neglecting patients and offering poor standard services to the patients. This led to formulation of a policy to ensure that health facilities and health workers are held responsible and accountable for the actions and services they give to the patients as in American Nurses Association (AMA, 2010). The policy was also aimed at ensuring that health facilities meet the required standards of giving care to any patients. There was a problem of substandard health facilities giving care to patients which have even risked the lives of the patient more (Rogers, 2008). Therefore, to solve this problem there was need to introduce a policy to regulate and monitor the standards of the health facilities (Adams, 1996). Health policies implemented in Britain are as a result of the problems and situations arising at the hospitals or during the giving of health care to the citizens (Haas 2005). For example, according to the research done by the department of health in 2011 revealed that, of all the acute hospitals of NHS that were inspected by the care quality commission, one fifth of them were short of meeting the dignity and nutrition essential standards for all older people. In this case some of the problems that were reported included patients not being accorded the care and help they require while eating, making calls being out of their reach as well as lacking privacy for the patients (Care quality commission, 2011a). Some major reports from various avenues reported that the quality of care received and by the vulnerable patients like the old, be it in the hospitals or even in the residential settings was very wanting and not quality care (Care Quality Commission 2011a; Patients Association 2010). These problems raised the question about what need to be done to ensure that the old and the vulnerable people get the quality of care that they are entitled to (Bambra 2012). Britain is known to be unusual about having a well-established staff and patient national surveys to be used in the process and procedure of comparing and measuring the experience of patients’ care over time (Ham 2009). The government through the King’s Fund were of the view that there is need for the trust to invest in different measurement; that is, there is a necessity of measuring more frequently the experiences of patients in order to ensure and enhance quality accountability and improvement (The King’s Fund 2012). Patients should also be allowed to make choices regarding their care in some hospital environment aspects. The coalition government introduced various health policies like measuring the NHS performance by indicator in accordance with the NHS outcomes framework domain 4, so as to ensure that all the people get and are given the quality health care they deserve, in order to experience a positive health care experience (Baggot 2011). The government uses the social democracy ideology approach, in that it has the welfare of all the patients and the vulnerable patients at hand. All the patients are to be given their rights in terms of liberty, privacy, the right to use phones, as well as to be allowed to make choices in some hospital situations (Naidoo & Wills 2008). Other stakeholders have also contributed their ideas and ideologies on the health policy in Britain. Quality guidance and standards have been provided by the National Institute for Health and clinical Excellence (NICE), and these are on the experiences of the patients in NHS health services (NICE 2012b). The establishment of the National quality Board in 2009 saw it publish the Patient Experience Framework in 2012 which shared the board’s ideologies about the critical elements to the best experience of the NHS by the patients, founded on evidence- based definition (Department of Health 2011k). The government still goes ahead to regulate the providers of the health care like the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which is in charge for seeing to it that the NHS meets all the regulations of providing quality standards and health care (Appleby, Thompson & Galea 2012). The problems facing the health sector led to the introduction of policy of clinical governance which is a systematic way in which health facilities are held accountable to keep on improving the quality of services they offer in a continuous mode (Sale, 2010). This policy is also aimed at safeguarding high care standards by making the environment under which health care and other related services should be given. Clinical governance is very important to every medical process and especially health care giving to patients. Clinical governance policy gives directions to the medical practitioners like doctors, nurses and the carers on what they should do so as to give the best care possible to their patients (Rogers, 2008). They give guidelines to those who give care so as to ensure that the patients receive the best treatment that will enable them regain their health. The reason behind this is to ensure that there are no negligence mistakes in carrying out treatment (AMA, 2010). The clinical governance policy ensures that health care givers deliver quality services which is safe, efficient, and up to date and gives the best interest to the patients (Meyer, 2007). This ensures that only qualified and trained personnel can handle patients. This gives guidance to those who are intending to venture into giving health sector as health care giver (Sale, 2010). Clinical governance policy was also introduced to protect health practitioners from facing unnecessary complaints if they followed the right procedure in delivering their services (Sale, 2010). This means that they cannot face litigation if services were delivered in the best interest of the patients (Wheeler and Foster, 2013). This also means that the policies and clinical governance should be used against practitioners who offer services which are below the set standards. Clinical governance policies act as a resolution to problems (Rogers, 2008). These policies act as a guideline to any person who intends to set up a health service unit because there are key elements that they should be aware of before starting operations (Sale, 2010). Therefore, these policies and governance are important in this scenario where one is setting up a health care giving unit (Wheeler and Foster, 2013). This means that an individual should meet the required standards before they take in any patients and start operations (AMA, 2010). This ensures that the guidelines are followed in the best way possible and it works to ensure that people who are not service oriented are eliminated (Sale, 2010). The policies also ensures that the health staff are highly monitored and supervised by the governing body so as to ensure the best services are delivered as per the customers case (Rogers, 2008). The policy was introduced by the House of Commons as a way of eliminating substandard hospitals and health services unit from giving poor services to the people. This would ensure that the general public receive high quality services from the qualified health units (Meyer, 2007). The policy was introduced and it was to be implemented by the NHS because it was to monitor all the health units in the country (Sale, 2010). It was to be implemented to the health facilities and all people who practice health as a profession. This policy will ensure that all the set up health facilities meet the required standards and give high quality services that will help patients recover. The NHS will be charged with the role of ensuring these requirements are met. The policy will ensure that the patients receive the best services and care from the health services giving units. This will be ensured through continuous monitoring of the health units. The policy was influenced by the ideology of social democracy that will ensure people receive the best care that could be offered to them. According to this ideology people should be treated equally without favouring any particular group (AMA, 2010). Therefore, the services should be high quality and the health practitioners are also protected from any litigation that might face them as far as they follow the required procedure in giving the care to the patients. This policy was to benefit the whole society because it will ensure that high quality services are given at all health facilities. This will promote health standards in the society and eliminate most of the infections from the society (Sale, 2010). The policy will benefit the patients because they will not be neglected by the health workers and they can sue the health workers if they gave the patients poor standard services (Colby, Dulmus & Sowers, 2012). It will also benefit the government because it will lead to an increase in registration of health units which will pay taxes to the government. This policy will ensure that there are no poor standard health units in the country (Sale, 2010). It will also ensure that the patients receive high quality satisfaction and this will help them to quick recovery (Meyer & Hinchman, 2007). The policy of clinical governance lays down a process that one should follow in opening a care giving health unit (Wheeler and Foster, 2013). Therefore, there will be no need to carry out a lot of research as long as this policy is put in place. The policy has received a lot of support from all the stakeholders because it will bring a lot of benefits to each and every stakeholder (AMA, 2010). The policy outcome is positive because all the stakeholders will be responsible while giving care to the patients (Busky, 1999). The ideology of social democracy for any policy formulating body is important because it fights for equality among the people of the country (Pierson, 2001). The ideology should be put into practice during the policy making process so as to ensure the majority of the people in the society benefit (Rogers, 2008). Universal health care policy For a policy to be implemented there has to be an underlying problem, which is, threatening social stability in a society, as well as the interaction of the social actors and their institutions (Appleby, Thompson & Galea 2012). In 2012, the department of health in Britain had noted that cancer patients were suffering very much because of the insufficient cancer drugs in the hospitals as well as because of the high costs of attaining the cancer drugs (Department of health 2012y). This problem was understood and interpreted as having arisen as a result of inadequate funding by the government to the department of health to ensure the procurement of enough cancer drugs, as well as the high costs of these drugs. The government in turn, through its white paper, affirmed the principle of making the health care largely free and accessible (Department of Health 2010a). To solve this health problem in Britain, the Cancer Drug Fund was established in 2011 and set up with £200 million funding every year up to the year 2012 (Department of Health 2012y). This step saw 12, 500 patients have access to cancer drugs by February 2012. The government also made commitment of improving access to new and high quality drugs, and this was to be done by introducing a new pricing regime. The government which suggested this policy and saw to its implementation was aiming and introducing a policy which would, in the long run, reduce the rates of inequality in accessing health care in Britain, through the commissioning Board mandate of the NHS (Bambra 2012). By implementing this policy, the government employs the social democracy ideology of ensuring that all the citizens have access to their right to good and affordable health, by forcing the NHS Commissioning Board to honour its duties (Owen 2011). The NHS duties include providing quality health care to all people equally, reduce inequalities which are unjustifiable while providing services, as well as improving the quality of health care that they provide. There was a problem of lack of cover to all the citizens in the country. This meant that only a few could access high quality health services because they were rich and could pay for these services (Shlomo, 1968). There was also a problem of health professionals lacking power and authority required in their field of operation (Wheeler and Foster, 2013). Therefore, there was need to introduce a policy that will offer cover to all the stakeholders involved in the health sector (King, 1996). The policy was to offer health services affordable health services to all the citizens without any discrimination. It was also to increase the power of the health professionals (Rogers, 2008). The policy was introduced through the parliamentary system of government and it became successful because the ruling party had majority members in parliament (McLellan, 2007). The ruling party wanted to ensure that every person could access affordable health services from any health institution without facing any discrimination (Colby, Dulmus & Sowers, 2012). The policy was also intended to ensure that health professionals had the authority and power to solve the problems that arose in their profession without involving other stakeholders. This will highly promote health services quality in the whole society (Meyer & Hinchman, 2007). The policy was to be implemented by the NHS because it is the body charged with managing health services in the country. The policy was to be assigned in such a way that everyone affords to pay for their health services because the government had subsidised the payments and health insurance (Fitzpatrick, 2003). This policy will benefit most of the people in the country because health policies used to benefit only a few rich people who could pay the expensive premiums (Rogers, 2008). The implementation of this policy was not easy because it received a lot of opposition from the conservatives because they believed it would increase taxes thus reducing their salaries (Callinicos, 2010).They also thought that the policy will lead to poor services in the health service units (Wheeler and Foster, 2013). The conservatives also believed that there would be a lot of congestions in the hospitals because it will be taking long to see the doctor (Eatwell & Anthony Wright, 1999). The policy was to be funded by the government so as to ensure all the citizens benefited (Hollander, 2011). The policy was influenced by the ideology of social democracy that advocates proper services for all the people in the country (King, 1996). The ideology states that the majority should benefit from the government policies no matter their earnings. The policy outcome was that most of the citizens could receive and afford health services (Hollander, 2011). The ideology is very important during the policy making process because it is one of the policies that advocates for equality in the society and works to ensure all the people benefit from the policies formulated (Colby, Dulmus & Sowers, 2012). The social democracy ideology in this situation goes a long way in curtailing the social class gap whereby, the high class with the money are the only ones able to access cancer drugs and quality care, since they can afford to pay for them. This ideology is usually applied by the government in order to bring in equality to its citizens, and to ensure that its citizens indeed do have access to the basic necessities like quality health care (Buse, Mays & Walt 2012). For example, in a long time, cancer had been treated as a lifestyle disease, which was thought to affect the rich, and the treatment for cancer became very expensive. However, with time it turned out that cancer can affect anybody, including the poor, but the treatment costs remained high, and could not be afforded by the rich (Department of Health 2012y). This causes the gap between the upper class (those who can afford treatment), and middle class (those who cannot afford the treatment). To curb this disparity and inequality, the government sets in by implementing policies which ensure that all the citizens enjoy the basic necessities, like cancer drugs for the cancer patients, equally and efficiently (Mahon, Walshe and Chambers 2009). Conclusion Indeed, ideology plays a vital role in the formulation of policies not only in Britain, but also worldwide. With the bitter fact of social inequality in Britain as well as in other parts of the world, ideologies come in handy in acting as a platform on which the policy system is based (Ham 2009). This is in order to maintain if not reduce the inequality gap in the countries not only in the social sector, but in the political and economic arenas as well (Hawkes 2003). Ideologies are very important in the policy process as they portray the real scenario affecting the social institutions in a society, as well as the social actors in their relationships and interactions (Owen 2011). Social policies are coined from the areas or human aspects which are a necessity to all people like health and housing, and they are heavily influenced by the ideologies of welfare present in a society. References Adams, I. 1996. Political ideology today. Manchester: Manchester University Press. American Nurses Association (AMA). 2010. Nursing’s social policy statement. (3rd ed.). Nursebooks.org: Washington, DC. Appleby, J., Thompson, J. & Galea, A., 2012. How is the NHS Performing? September 2012. Quarterly monitoring report. London: The King’s Fund. 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