1944–1948

Bevan's NHS and Butler's Education Act

Story 8 of 10

Embroidery-style illustration: on the left, a 1940s hospital and a nurse in a white cap; on the right, schoolchildren with satchels walking into a red-brick secondary school

In 1948 the Minister for Health, Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, led the creation of the National Health Service (NHS). It promised everyone a basic level of health care, and patients paid nothing when they used it (it was free at the point of use).

The new service opened on 5 July 1948. That day Bevan went to Park Hospital near Manchester to "take it over" from the local council, as a symbol of the change. Its first NHS patient was Sylvia Diggory (Beckingham before she married), a 13-year-old girl who was being treated there for a liver problem. The hospital is now called Trafford General Hospital.

Clement Attlee's Labour government also set up a national system of benefits, called social security, so that people were looked after "from the cradle to the grave".

At the same time, the Attlee government nationalised several key industries, putting them under state ownership: the railways, coal mines, gas, water and electricity.

R. A. Butler and the 1944 Education Act

Education was another part of the post-war welfare state. The Conservative politician R. A. Butler (later Lord Butler) was put in charge of education in 1941. He brought in the Education Act 1944, often called The Butler Act, which gave every child in England and Wales a free secondary school education. The split between "primary" and "secondary" schools that most areas still have today also comes from this law.

Key facts

After the war Britain's economy was weak. In 1945 voters elected a Labour government, and the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, promised the welfare state described in the Beveridge Report.
Attlee (1883–1967): born in London, the son of a solicitor. He studied at Oxford and became a barrister, then gave up law to do social work in London's East End before becoming a Labour MP. In the Second World War he was Deputy Prime Minister in Churchill's coalition government. He served as Prime Minister in 1945–1951, and was Labour's leader for 20 years. His government nationalised big industries such as coal and steel, set up the NHS, carried out many of Beveridge's ideas and improved conditions for workers.
The 1942 Beveridge Report (official title Social Insurance and Allied Services): ordered by the wartime government in 1941 to fight five giant evils, Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness; the basis of the modern welfare state. Beveridge was an economist and social reformer and a Liberal. He was an MP for a short time and later led the Liberals in the House of Lords.
In 1948 the Minister for Health, Aneurin (Nye) Bevan, led the setting up of the NHS: basic health care for everyone, free when you use it.
Social security protected people "from the cradle to the grave".
Industries taken into state ownership: the railways, coal mines, gas, water and electricity.
R A Butler (Conservative, an MP from 1923, in charge of education from 1941) brought in the 1944 Education Act (the Butler Act), which made secondary education free in England and Wales. The division into primary and secondary schools that it created is still found in most areas.

Quiz

As Minister for Health, who was responsible for setting up the NHS in 1948?

Quiz

Which politician was behind the 1944 Education Act that made secondary schooling free in England and Wales?

Era contents: 1930 – 1950