P2: Describe the origins of public health policy from the 19th century to present day
M1: Compare historical and current features of public health
Public health provision was completely transformed as the 19th century progressed. Overcrowding, dirt, poverty and disease went hand in hand at the century's start, but by the 1900s energetic social reformers had comprehensively turned things round. Origins of public health began just after the industrial revolution. During the 1800s the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Britain. The use of steam-powered machines, led to a massive increase in the number of factories. As the number of factories grew people from the countryside began to move into the towns looking for better paid work. They moved into the towns because farm workers wages were very low. Also there were less jobs working on farms because of the invention and use of new machines. (www.nettlesworth.durham)
Thousands of new workers were needed to work machines in mills and the factory owners built houses for them. The working conditions were very poor. There was no heating or lighting, many people worked 14 hrs a day 7 days a week. Children from the age of five also had to work; they had the most dangerous jobs which were to clean the machinery. Many children died from doing this and others were seriously injured with legs and arms ripped off. In the 1800s, urbanisation occurred, Cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad. At the start of the 19th Century about 1/5 of Britain’s population lived there, but by 1851 half the population of the country had set up home in London. London, like most cities, was not prepared for this great increase in people. People crowded into already crowded houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or even several families. The worker's houses were usually near to the factories so that people could walk to