Social Work Social Policy And Social Welfare Social Work Essay

Social Work Social Policy And Social Welfare Social Work Essay With reference to changes in Government policy and ideologies of welfare, debate the significance of the shift from Victorian Pauper to 21st century service user and its impact on social work practice and values. This assignment has used a historical timeline of Governmental changes to policies and laws as a background to debate the shift from Victorian Pauper to 21st century service user. The divide between the rich and poor has always been an issue that different governments have faced, dealing with it differently, for example Clement Attlees labour Government in 1945 introduced the welfare state to give every British citizen cover, regardless of income or lack of it. Those who lacked jobs and homes would be helped. The definition of a Pauper according to the Collins dictionary is someone who is relatively poor, in comparison to the general population or historically eligible for public charity. The definition of a service user is someone who at some point uses or receives health or social care services. (General Social Care Council) The term service user is criticised, as critics Adams et al (2009) believe it focuses on one element of the individual, implying dependency, without taking into account other aspects and argue that the term places the service user in a disempowered position in their relationship with a professional, with power residing with this professional. The National Network of Service Users: Shaping our lives however sees the term service user as positive, its an individual who uses the services, they confer power creating a stronger voice and having a greater ability to shape services. (Levin 2004) Modern British social policy has its foundation in the Poor Laws, dating from 1598 to 1948. The Poor Law (1601) provided a compulsory poor rate and helped set the poor to work. However as the Parish was the basic area of administration, and laws were enforced differently from parish to parish with no set standards of care causing inconsistencies between areas. The Poor Law amendment act (1834) modified the existing system. Poor Law Unions were introduced, parishes were grouped together, and those Unions would be the responsibility of a Board of Guardians. The Guardians were responsible for the administration of poor relief for their locality, rather than leaving the responsibility of administration in the hands of individual parishes and townships. Workhouses were introduced and encouraged, one workhouse in each union to give poor relief. This Act stated that no able bodied person was to receive any other help other than in the workhouse. The purpose of the workhouse was to let individuals enter and leave as they liked and they would receive free food and accommodation, how ever as time passed concern grew with regard to the seeming overuse of the workhouse. As a result the eligibility criteria for entry to the workhouse was then altered. Life in the workhouse was to be made as cruel as it was outside. The wretched existence offered, and the stigma attached to being an inmate, ensured that only the truly deprived used them. A jail style system of segregation for men and women meant that even families had to be separated, altogether different from 21st Century social work values which espouse a stronger commitment to keeping families together, with child protection services and child welfare agencies providing support to ensure family preservation. (Payne, 2005) It was in 1869 that The Charity Organisation Society (COS) was formed to unify the many smaller sources of relief and make provision more efficient and effective. The COS perceived that charitable assistance was needed and believed that their aim was to reach all families, but were unsure how the money had previously been spent. COS set out a scheme of financial help, introducing local committees, who then raised funds and distributed these to families in need. Similar to many charities today, there are still many families who dont ask for help because of religion, language, pride or because they are not aware that help may be available. (Family Action) The aim of COS was to persuade charities to converge their resources, which might then be distributed more systematically. However the individuals helped had to be deemed capable of becoming self supporting. Worthiness was considered before any charitable help was given. Those who werent considered worthy were left to destitution, the Society effectively deciding that as they deemed there to be no hope for their redemption, that to help them would be a waste of limited resources which would be better spent elsewhere with individuals or families who could subsequently lift themselves out of poverty and dependence. (Campling, 1996) The COS model was pioneering in taking into account the consequences if they helped every individual, as they thought this would lead to dependency and exaggeration in order to receive money. COS was also formed with the objective of achieving a decrease in the charitable expenditure as a result of greater efficiency and the economy of scale, and in this sense the COS reflected the wider ideology of the industrial revolution. Current Social Work objectives similarly seek to achieve value for money, with the Audit commission defining value for money as the best possible balance of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Whilst the 21st century social worker endeavours to deal fairly with the needs of everyone, nevertheless, the distribution of needs is uneven and changes constantly. To ensure quality is consistent care plan reviews are monitored and service users may be involved in quality circles, engaging them in deciding whats best. Direct payment schemes are also offered to a minority group of service users to let them decide on and customise their own social care. The main problem Social Services face is the potential impact of the dynamic and variable economic and pol itical environment in which they must function. Whilst trying to provide individualised care packages they have to ensure that its effective in respect to cost. Also there is growing recognition that a number of minority groups may be excluded from accessing services such as Social Work services and, also those services which have previously not been provided in culturally appropriate ways. (Making ends meet, 2010) Appropriate steps will therefore need to be taken to enforce anti discriminatory practice and anti oppressive practice, when considering how to provide help in accessing services for minority groups. The COS quickly found that more than financial aid was needed to help paupers. Emotional and other practical help was also required, for example help with finding employment. COS volunteers were trained to offer such additional help and, therefore, the formal training offered by COS can be seen as the forerunner of modern social work training and qualifications. They adopted an approach which attempted to analyse the problem. Working with the individual and family to help them achieve a lasting solution so all could be kept in their familiar environments. This approach was very time consuming, and the approach the worker took to investigate the individual was very objectionable. This approach is the basis of the current Social Work casework approach which is now highly criticised. Holman (1993) suggests that the casework approach only masks social and political obligations in individuals lives, therefore helping to maintain their situation. There are now other approaches that focus on reducing inequality. Which investigate the social and political reasons as well as the individuals as to why they are in poverty. A new manifesto for Social Work now highlights the need to use a collection of approaches as the need to combat poverty and discrimination is greater than ever. Many who tried to use the COS principles found it difficult to disregard individuals who needed help. Other approaches were latterly introduced to help more individuals. The Settlement House Movement (1884) was one of these. Its principles focused on university volunteers working with the poor in their spare time, offering education. Its aim was to achieve mutual respect between the classes. This approach focused on empowering the poor, helping them to help themselves. Society also benefitted from this model. It focused on a more structured analysis of poverty and its impact on human behaviour by practising interventions at a community level. This is needed now to help small communities and the individuals within it. The nature of social work practice then changed and focused on individuals. A significant element was hearing clients voices and the incomparable knowledge of the professionals working with them to help whichever way they could. (Adams et al, 2009) Using these models the Government laid the basis of the future social services. The major concern being that all areas should be given the same services. These new services were provided away from The Poor Law to evade the association. Current Social Work still has its inconsistencies, however the White Paper Tackling Health Inequalities Programme of Action (Department of Health, 2003), focuses on a number of ways to equalise access to healthcare, for example working with people who face overlapping health problems for instance older people who have ill health and are in poverty. Social Workers are focussing on secondary prevention, as this type of prevention can impact more individuals. A major report produced regarding the welfare of individuals was the Beveridge Report (Department of Health, 1942). This report focused on how Britain could be rebuilt after the war. In 1945 labour was elected and promised to introduce a welfare state. The welfare state involved introducing new services. These included the National Health Services and Housing Acts. The welfare state was produced to encourage the provision of services for the public. (Laybourn, 1995) Glasby (2005) looked at previous reforms and how the future would be in adult social care. It evaluated all important reports to see how social work could be improved. One report that impacted policy and practice during the 1960s was the Seebohm report (1968). This report highlighted the problems of poverty and was tasked to review the organisation and responsibilities of the Local Authority Social Services in England as well as to consider what changes were desirable to secure an effective family service. (Seebohm, 1968, pg11.) Prior to this report Social Work was spread across various Local Authorities and different Government sections. This caused inadequacies in the quality of provision. Access was very difficult. For example, range and quality of provision of services were inconsistent also the Seebohm Report highlighted a poor coordination of information between these services. The report recommended a new Local Authority department providing a community based and family orient ated service, which would be available for all. When this recommendation was brought into action new Social Services Departments were formed. The Seebohm Report did highlight potential problems. It stated that having separate departments for children and adults might subsequently make it difficult to treat the familys needs as a whole. The Barclay Report (1982) looked into the role of a social worker. In its opening line it stated that too much was expected of social workers. It found that it was a profession that was confused about its role and because of intense media scrutiny was struggling with work load. It found that there was an ongoing need for social workers to fulfil many functions including promoting community networks, working with other services and acting as an advocate for clients. The report did criticise social work departments for taking a reactive stance towards social problems, dealing with those needs which are forced upon their attention but failing to develop overall plans which link the voluntary, statutory and private services in an area into a coherent plan which is still a problem today. (Department of Health, 1982, pg.38) Social Services Departments find it difficult to help every need as they dont have limitless resources. They need to use other services and work with them closely, the help of Interprofessional education will ensure that other professionals have an understanding of social workers roles. The Barclay Report produced very similar recommendations to that of the Seebohm Report (1968). Although it highlighted that the community approach may have more success now, as there is a greater capacity for individuals to be more autonomous and make their own decisions. The community approach focuses on the local community and social workers would observe individuals in the context of their community. This approach uses local centres and pools resources, creating less impact on the Social Work services so their resources can be spread further. Reports such as these have highlighted how important good social work is, and how much it is needed. There are many problems involved in the profession. There is still stigma attached to the term service user just as there was to the term pauper. Whilst researching the different acts and welfare ideologies that have been introduced throughout the timeline I have used (see paragraph one, page one) I have found that individuals still have problems accessing help. There are families who still may be disinclined to ask for help because of the stigma of doing so. New approaches have introduced service user involvement by asking them what help they want and defining the quality of help they receive. A recent report by Beresford, Shamash, Forrest and Turner (2007) researched service users future vision for adult services. They found that the process of accessing social care was frequently negative for service users furthermore the assessments were very dependent on the quality of the staff carrying it out. All social workers should work to one high standard. It shouldnt be a lottery of if you get a good one or not. A universal tool could be implemented so that all service users were asked the same questions and could highlight their specific problems and needs whilst using the tool. Service users also highlighted the fact that access to their social worker was low and many of the service users questioned had gaps in their services making them feel insecure. Reports researched for this assignment have all found that service users know what they want and can easily highlight the problems they face or have had previously. One report found that while welfare bureaucracy has been condemned by governments for a long while, service users still identify problems (Shaping Our Lives, 2007). There is still social exclusion. Social Services Departments may contribute to it as they help individuals just enough, finding the quickest way to help them not necessarily the best way in the long run because of finite resources. Using different approaches, for example the community approach would help at different levels so less emphasis is on Social Services Departments resources. Vast improvements are still needed. For example child poverty is getting worst. The Report Monitoring poverty and social exclusion (2009) found that children who live in low-income households, where at least one adult works, is at the highest it has ever been. This increase has a ffected the Governments child poverty targets. The recession affected reaching the targets greatly. It is vital now to recover from the recession but also to recover from underlying problems that were there previously before the economic downturn began. Reports like Shaping Our Lives (2007) found that service users feel more responsible and confident about the help they are receiving when they have been more involved in the decision processes. A report by Beresford et al, (2007) found that service users would like a watchdog with a board of service users and professionals so they could be involved in judging the quality of care they receive. The Race Equality Act (2006) sets the context for anti- discriminatory practice within which social workers operate. However, whilst it could be critiqued that some progress has been made as a result with respect to those of different culture and religion, continuing inequalities would suggest much more progress remains to be made. To conclude social work has changed significantly and progress to help all individuals needs to continue. However as a profession it needs a larger voice to talk about the problems they face therefore getting extra help to ensure that service users and paupers have even fewer similarities. There has been a great shift from pauper to service user. Service users have much more freedom and rights now. Albeit there are still similarities which need to be focused on to improve the services available. Social Service Departments also need to refuse to let policies be imposed when they dont improve on what is already implemented. Rights are now benefitting service users but we need to ensure this continues.

Monsoon cripples life in Mumbai Essay

Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra for the second consecutive day Monday, disrupting normal life in the region, officials said. Many parts of the city and suburbs have been waterlogged and some areas were flooded Monday morning, hampering smooth movement of people and vehicles, said officials at the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s Disaster Control Cell. Flooding was reported from Malad, Andheri, Versova, Dadar, Parel, Chembur, many parts of the key LBS Marg in the eastern suburbs, and Marol-Saki Naka belt. Two important subways at Malad and Andheri were flooded, with about three feet of water, rendering them inoperational for the east-west traffic movement. Local trains were delayed. Central Railway trains ran late by 20 minutes, Western Railway ones by 15 minutes and trains on the Harbour Line by 30 minutes. Peak morning hour commuters and businessmen were left inconvenienced. In the 24 hours preceding 5.30 a.m. Monday, South Mumbai recorded 9.04 cm rain, while the suburbs notched a staggering 18.01 cm rain, a weather bureau official said. The forecast for Monday and Tuesday is â€Å"heavy to very heavy rains† in many parts of the coastal areas including Mumbai, with accompanying strong winds and advice to fishermen not to venture into the Arabian Sea. The torrential, virtually incessant, rain since Saturday night has resulted in traffic moving at a snail’s pace on the Eastern Express Highway, Western Express Highway, the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road and other important roads and junctions. Though Mumbaikars enjoyed the monsoon with parties and picnics during the weekend, the grim reality dawned Monday, as schools reopened after the summer break and many office-goers returned to work. The monsoon also set in over other parts of the state, offering welcome respite from water scarcity and intense heat wave conditions. Till date, there have been 11 monsoon-related deaths in different incidents across the state.

How to Find World War 1 Essay Topics Online

How to Find World War 1 Essay Topics Online You may see the difference between the standard vision and a vision that's sensitive to the UV light also, precisely the same torch beam is apparently brighter once you'll have the ultra violet light vision. Whether a real soccer game took place is a topic of historic debate. Your very first idea is nearly always very likely to be too significant. You've come to the proper spot! The Government may have decided differently. The secrecy also increased the odds a county might guess wrong regarding the consequences of its actions. As a consequence of that, European powers wanted to boost their military power and outdo different nations concerning Military power and dominance. Force was considered the greatest remedy to problems. World War 1 Essay Topics - What Is It? The criteria that determine a great topic aren't numerous. Here are some helpful tips which will allow you to make the proper choice and compose an outstanding histo ry essay. 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Select a painting and discuss what the painter was attempting to say regarding the war. Read more and discover your inspiration. This in many circles is called nationalism. The love of someone's country can be applauded. In truth, it is a fantastic trait that needs to be cultivated by everyone. Who Else Wants to Learn About World War 1 Essay Topics? Today, I will change that. The majority of the folks may have heard about it but may not know about the details related to it, therefore a researcher can get a region that people aren't much familiar with and can learn more about the new dimensions related to it so as to develop something versatile and worth working on. They enjoy been outstanding outside the record. The percent of people who were left homeless paled in correlation to the amount of lives lost on each side of the war. 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This time you've got to compose a World War II essay. World War One was a highly volatile period for quite a few, and remains in history for a time of excellent destruction. The War of the Worlds covers a wide selection of themes.

Current Situation Of The Major Uk Banking Institutions - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3145 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Introduction Overview: In this dissertation report, I discuss the current situation of the major UK banking institutions in face of the credit crunch and the recessionary economic conditions. It represents an analysis of the main trends in the performance of five major UK banks: the Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC. This research project aims to establish the relation between the resilience of the management of the banking institution and the organizational performance. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Current Situation Of The Major Uk Banking Institutions" essay for you Create order The report presents a critical argument over the factors that led to the subprime crisis and eventually dragged the economy of the most of the developed countries into a recession. I attempts to identify who is to blame for the current state of the UK economy and provides a complex picture of the events that took place shortly before the economic crisis began to unfold in the US and UK banking sectors. The study analyses the performance data for each bank and provides an insight into the management practices and managerial decision making in each of the named banks. It then attempts to establish a match between the two and provide a critical evaluation of managerial approaches and decision making strategies at play. It then provides managerial recommendations as to the preferable risk evaluation and risk management practices so as to avoid or at least reduce the possibility of future crises of the same nature. Background of the Study: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis was a global credit crunch and the failure of financial system. Moreover, it has affected consumer habits, their economic values and relationship with financial sectors. Many people failed to repay their debts. And they started to feel that they were being pursued by the creditors. Like the crisis was not of their own making and most popular financial institutions were collapsing around them. But the product of forces was beyond their control. So, the crisis was not only the liquidity crisis but also was the psychology of the real estate bubble. We had financial crisis in 1980s that suffered by Mexico after the oil price boom. And in the 1980s stock and housing markets bubble in Japan and the mortgage lending booms in both Sweden and Mexico leaded their economy to major financial crisis in 1990s. (Shiller, 2008) In UK, Overend Gurney, the discounted bank which provide money to commercial and high street banks, was declared as bankruptcy in 1886. Then the bank of England introduced à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Lender of Last Resortà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. (BBC, 2007) In the past few years the USA as well as United Kingdom have suffered from the consequences of the global financial crisis that have started in 2007 as the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. The situation is still unstable and challenging for both countries, especially for their financial systems. This economic crisis has been considered as the return of depression for the US economy (Krugman, 2009). Current crisis is also named to be the worst in the last 75 years with dramatic negative effects on businesses, economies and financial systems (Altman, 2009). Current global financial crisis has started with sub-prime mortgage crisis in the USA. Defaults on mortgage loans affected the US financial system dramatically as these securities served as underlying assets for structured financial vehicles such as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) that were traded by investment banks. Banking system was the sector that suffered first as banks were over-lending huge amounts of money and conducting poor risk management. Objective of the dissertation research: The terms à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½the real moneyà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½the promises about moneyà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ works like someone promise to pay more money later for a little real money. So, there is a balance between the real money and the promises which is called credit. For example, people promises to the bank to repay money with extra interest every month to owe a little money for a specific period. So, the bank gives the money and keeps the promise which is called Mortgage. According to the promise, bank is the actual home owner until the full mortgage payment done. That is called collateral. So, the bank is acting as a Depository Banking because bank need to manage a lot of deposit to give loan to the people. Again, the bank brings all of the billions promises together and pack them as securities, and sell securities for money. So, The main objective of the dissertation research is to analyse subprime mortgage crisis that includes The reasons are behind the mortgages market à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½why did the crisis happen?, à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½how is it unfolding now?à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½What is the future activities?à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ related to subprime mortgage crisis. Background: The subprime crisis in August 2007 was a liquidity crisis but it did not seem to fit the facts. How could Britainà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s largest mortgage bank Northern Rock reject customersà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ mortgages? Why the entire major banks stopped liquidity support in the interbank relationship? The story was surely deeper than a standard-issue credit problem. Rationale of the Proposed Research: The current proposed research has therefore been aimed at bridging the two schools of thoughts surrounding the subprime mortgage business crisis and the support to solve the crisis. It should be noted that there has been a lack of management literature directly concerned with the role of mortgages in recession and economic downturn. Proposed Research Questions: My target for this research is to analyze mortgage business crisis as a source of competitive advantage for companies to pursue in times of economic downturns. In order to achieve this broad aim of the proposed research a number of research questions have been furnished, that include: The research project aims to answer the following questions: 1. Did the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½freezing up of the money supplyà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ (credit crunch) lead to weakening of the organisational performance among major UK banks? 2. Did the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½non resilient planning and decision making mechanismsà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ lead to weakening organisational performance among major UK banks? Research Structure This paper begins with an extensive critical literature review that attempts to establish what were the main factors that lead the global economy to its current state. In trying to do so it analyses the recently published literature and articles on the subject so as to provide the sum of knowledge on the subject to the present day. The literature review demonstrates the complexity of the reasons behind the subprime mortgage crisis and the downturn of the economy of the developed countries. Chapter Three provides the justification for the methodology used to carry out this research project. Through a critical consideration of the possible options it identifies the most suitable research design and describes the data collection methods and the sources used to collect the data for the purpose of this research. Chapter Four presents the research findings based on the data sourced from various sources described in the Methodology. It provides visual representations of the trends discussed through a wide use of graphs for the sake of clarity of the findings. The analysis of the research findings is the main focus of Chapter Five that also includes the conclusions, the managerial implications and the limitations of the research project. Definition of Terms: Traditional Banking: It arranges liabilities from the depositors and lends the liabilities to the consumer loans and other loans. So in this system if any risk arises like this one; the liquidity risk than the depositors wanted to take the money out but the money is locked in the long term loans like mortgages and others. So then central bank can help as a lender of last resort. Again, if the loans go bed then the banks can face the solvency problem where insurance corporation; like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) can help in this aspect. It is noted that the traditional banking system is covered with a lot of regulations and regulatory support. Shadow Banking: Fischer Black, in his book à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Fundamentals of Liquidityà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ in 1970, defined the corporate bond as three parties shared the bond where one supply the money, the other took the interest rate risk and the last party took the risk of defaults. In the modern banking system, the interest rate risk and the risk of defaults is turned as interest rate swaps and credit default swaps respectively. By this way, the credit becomes cheaper and more available for the ultimate borrowers. In the same way, the credit system is separated from the payment system. The traditional banks originate loans, get the interest rate risk off the balance sheet and avoid the risk of loan defaulting by the consumer. For this they originate loans, packaged and securitised them and finally sell them in the shadow banking systems. The shadow banking arranges funds from asset back securities, mutual funds and other money markets. Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs): The Asset Backed Securities (ABX) Index: This is a traded index of 20 CDO tranches. Credit Insurer of Last Resort: It is the Bagehot Rule indicates to lend or insure the mortgages freely but at a high rate or high premium. Perry Mehrling, professor and economist at Barnard College proposed à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½the credit insurer of last resortà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ as people want to borrow more systematic risk if they get it at a lower rate and systematically it brings them from cheating earthquakes. Main characteristics of the UK and US financial system The head element of the US financial system is the Federal Reserve System that has authority to conduct monetary policy, regulate banking sector and is responsible for the stability of the financial system (FRB, 2009). It also provides advice to the Government. The main elements of the Federal Reserve System are Board of Governors, Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Banks and advisory councils (FRS, 2009). Financial system is represented by lending and investment institutions, organised markets (e.g. stock market), financial services and products being traded. For the last few years, the US financial system was making huge profits without considering what consequences there would be. Risk was underestimated and more and more complicated financial vehicles appeared in the market and were sold to institutional investors. Underlying assets, however, were partly rotten and risky. Financial institutions seemed to play with fire and spread risk from one party to another until t he whole system started suffering. As many other countries, the United Kingdom has various connections to the US economy and financial system, UK banks invested in the US MBS and ABS à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ mortgage and asset-backed securities. Two economies are also interconnected through trade, borrowings, loans and banking sector. Here, the crisis had spread through financial operations, loans and bad debts to the UK banks, causing some to go bankrupt (e.g. Northern Rock, which was later nationalised). Even such giants as HSBC, RBS and Lloyds had to seek government support. UK financial sector is governed by the Bank of England that has a mission to secure and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½to contribute to maintaining financial stability in the UK as an essential ingredient for a healthy and successful economyà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ (Bank of England, 2009). However, this stability was at the risk of failure at the beginnings of 2008. The financial system of the United Kingdom includes financial institutions (commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds etc.), investment products and services being offered and infrastructure that facilitates trading. Banking sector has always faced different types of risks (credit risk, market risk, currency exchange risk etc.) and risk management is therefore essential. The crisis of 2008 demonstrated that financial system was very sensitive to economic shocks and vulnerable. London is considered to be financial centre of Europe and financial services are one of the most important sources of income of the UK economy. IMF (2003) used to indicate that British financial system was very stable and secure against external shocks. It could have been so. However, the point is not what it was but what it has become. Financial crisis has revealed weakness even in the seemingly strong British financial system. Both US and UK financial systems are now damaged and are trying to rehabilitate through restructuring and adoption of new reforms and policies. Financial institutions suffered unprecedented losses that will continue to have an impact on the economy in the near future. Changes in the UK and US financial system after the global crisis It should be noted that changes in financial system occur not only under the influence of economic disasters such as the credit crisis but also as part of the whole evolutionary process in the economy that needs to adapt to constantly changing competitive environment. Current financial crisis has intensified the tendency of changes. Today a lot of efforts are taken by the US and UK governments in order to rehabilitate financial system (GAO, 2009). Regulation of financial system is increasing. This can be observed in issuance of new financial reporting and accounting rules that attempt to protect investors from future failures in the system. Particularly, the question of qualified special purpose enterprises (QSPE) was raised as these were the main bodies that performed securitisation of risky financial instruments and remained off balance sheets of head companies (Herz, 2008; Haldane, 2009). One similarity of the changes regarding banking system that took place in the USA and UK is nationalisation of a number of large banks in order to rescue them from failure. The US example is Citigroup that is partly owned by the Government and the UK examples are The Royal Bank of Scotland which is almost totally owned by the UK government and Lloyds Banking Group (Webster, 2008). Changes in the financial system of such countries as the USA and UK are mainly connected with changes in such elements as financial institutions, credit markets, banking sector, including shadow banking system. The problem of shadow banking system was previously raised after Enron case and similar failure of corporate governance in the US. However, in spite of the significant changes that were done back then, e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, problems of shadow banking system remained. The problem of off balance sheet items was also discussed. Besides that, changes in disclosure of financial assets have been enforced (Herz, 2008). US government had several changes and responses for the global financial crisis. Before September 2008 the Federal Reserve decreased interest rates and adopted various programs to enhance liquidity in the financial system, nationalised the Bear Stearns bank and attempted to mitigate the problem of increasing foreclosures (Marshall, 2009, p. 3). However, after September 2008, the situation needed another approach à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ US Treasury became the main body along with Federal Reserve, to maintain and control the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that was adopted by the Congress in 2008. The government experimented with maintaining the rules of free economy and let Lehman Brothers fails instead of rescuing it. This failure had a huge negative impact on stability of both the US and UK financial systems. This stability was shattered and public lost confidence in capitalist forces. So, the process of nationalisation of some financial institutions was inevitable to restore or improve t he confidence (Marshall, 2009). Financial Regulatory Reform was adopted to remedy the consequences of the crisis and improve financial system. It was pointed that new approaches must be found in order to work more effective and be more secure to face changes. Briefly, the reforms cover the following major areas. They propose improvements of regulating financial and lending institutions as well as supervising them more closely. Secondly, the reform has made supervision of capital market stricter. Thirdly, the reform implies taking measures for protecting economic agents from financial fraud. Finally, the reform aims to increase regulation on international level by cooperation of the US with other countries (Financial Regulatory Reform, 2009). It can be said that the mentioned reforms all sound important and vital in todayà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s situation. However, their implementation may take significant time and resources. So, these can be viewed right now only as preconditions of future significant changes in financial sys tem of the US and other developed countries. An important change in the financial system that should be mentioned is the increase of the value of ensured deposits in the US and UK. The governments are aware that during the crisis when banks and other financial institutions face problems and even bankruptcy, depositors and savers will be reluctant to keep their money in banks if it is not secured. In the US, insurance of deposits is guaranteed by FDIC. Within the proposal of US Treasury, even more changes touched Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ as FDIC now will regulate and control some state banks and NCUA will support its authorities, taking into consideration credit unions (Block, 2008). Changes in the United Kingdom started during the crisis mainly with nationalisation. Changes in banking sector influenced the UK financial system dramatically. The Government had to rescue several large banks from failure. Northern Rock Bank had serious support from the Bank of England and later was nationalised in 2008, followed by Bradford Bingley, The Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS-Lloyds TSB. After that, the Bank of England adopted à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Special Liquidity measures in the money marketsà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½, different changes in the money market operations, introduced extended conditions for the asset swap discount and asset protection scheme (Edmonds, Webb and Long, 2009). Asset protection scheme was adopted in January 2009 and includes à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½protection against credit lossesà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ for the financial institutions (HM Treasury, 2009). Further significant changes in financial system of the UK and US are also likely to occur. This can be deduced from observing the plans and intentions of the Government. The Bank of England proposed changes to be taken in the international banking connected to liquidity and capital requirements (Shah, 2009). In his speech, Executive Director of the Bank of England, Haldane (2009) pointed that one of the main mistakes that caused crisis is the lack of information. Therefore, changes will be taken in order to open and improve communication channels and information delivery. He also proposed the necessity of new controlling body that will monitor the financial system and fix problems that appear immediately. Major changes should be done also in the management of financial institutions and particularly banks. Banks must improve their risk management practices and carefully maintain the balance between liquidity and return. It can be projected that both the US and UK government will attempt to separate functions of investment banks. Over the recent years, practices of investment and commercial banks became interrelated. Mortgages provided by private clients were repackaged into structured financial instruments such as CDOs and sold to institutional clients (Gorton, 2009). So, failure of private clients to meet their debt obligations spread to the corporate world very fast. Separation of activities can be recommended to reduce chances of future crises similar to this. Among macroeconomic measures that were taken in the UK are changes in interest rates. They were lowered to the point of 0.5%, which is the lowest figure for the last ten years and it is believed that such reduction will have positive effects in the near future. Also the policy of quantitative easing was introduced as an instrument that will help to increase activity level of the economy (Edmonds, Webb and Long, 2009).