Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living

conditions conducive to human welfare. The Department of Social Policy at the London School of
Economics defines social policy as "an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis
of societies' responses to social need. It seeks to foster in its students a capacity to understand theory
and evidence drawn from a wide range of social science disciplines, including economics, sociology,
psychology, geography, history, law, philosophy and political science. Social Policy is focused on those
aspects of the economy, society and policy that are necessary to human existence and the means by
which they can be provided. These basic human needs include: water, food, and shelter, a sustainable
and safe environment, the promotion of health and treatment of the sick, the care and support of those
unable to live a fully independent life; and the education and training of individuals to a level that
enables them fully to participate in their society".
[1]
The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
at Harvard University describes social policy as "public policy and practice in the areas of health care,
human services,criminal justice, inequality, education, and labor."
[2]
Social policy might also be described
as actions that affect the well-being of members of a society through shaping the distribution of and
access to goods and resources in that society.
[3]
Social policy often deals with wicked problems.
[4]

Contents
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1 History of social policy
2 Types of social policy
3 In academia
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
History of social policy[edit]
U.S. Secretary of StateWilliam Jennings Bryan was the first major U.S. political figure to incorporate
formal social policy into official government decisions, a champion of social justice. Bryan is pictured in
1908.
The earliest example of direct intervention by government in human welfare dates back to Umar ibn al-
Khattb's rule as the second caliph of Islam in the 6th century. He used zakah collections and also other
governmental resources to establish pensions, income support, child benefits, and various stipends for
people of the non-Muslim community.
[5]

In the West, proponents of scientific social planning such as the sociologist Auguste Comte, and social
researchers, such as Charles Booth, contributed to the emergence of social policy in the first
industrialised countries. Surveys of poverty exposing the brutal conditions in the
urban slumconurbations of Victorian Britain supplied the pressure leading to changes such as the reform
of the Poor Law and the welfare reforms carried out by the British Liberal Party. Other significant
examples in the development of social policy are the Bismarckian welfare state in 19th
centuryGermany, social security policies introduced under the rubric of the New Deal in the United
States between 1933 and 1935, and health reforms in Britain following the Beveridge Report of 1942.
Social policy in the 21st century is complex and in each state it is subject
to local, national and supranational political influence. For example, membership of the European
Union is conditional on member states' adherence to the Social Chapter of European Union law and
other international laws.
Types of social policy[edit]
Lady Justice depicts justice as equipped with three symbols: a sword symbolizing the court's coercive
power; a human scale weighing competing claims in each hand; and a blindfold indicating impartiality.
[6]

Social policy aims to improve human welfare and to meet human needs for education, health, housing
and social security. Important areas of social policy are the welfare state, social security, unemployment
insurance, environmental policy, pensions, health care, social housing, social care, child
protection, social exclusion, education policy, crime andcriminal justice.
The term 'social policy' can also refer to policies which govern human behaviour. In the United States,
the term 'social policy' may be used to refer toabortion and the regulation of its
practice, euthanasia, homosexuality, the rules surrounding issues of marriage, divorce, adoption, the
legal status ofrecreational drugs, and the legal status of prostitution.
In academia[edit]
Social Policy is also an academic discipline focusing on the systematic evaluation of societies' responses
to social need. It was developed in the early-to-mid part of the 20th century as a complement to social
work studies. London School of Economics professor Richard Titmuss is considered to have established
Social Policy (or Social Administration) as an academic subject and many universities offer the subject
for undergraduate andpostgraduate study. Other leading departments of Social Policy include
the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, Robert M. La Follette School of Public
Affairs, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, the Gerald R. Ford School of
Public Policy atUniversity of Michigan and The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard
University.