ABSTRACT
The 1960s and 1970s marked a structural shift in demographic behaviour and societal norms, known as the ‘Second Demographic Transition’. The cultural shift towards ‘individualism’ and a post-modern society has been identified as a product of post-war welfare regimes, economic prosperity and increasing educational levels with an increasing emphasis on self-fulfilment as opposed to a community orientation. Family policy includes social and economic policies that take ‘the family’ as their focal point, whatever the definition of family. Britain has only recently moved from an implicit to explicit interest in policies affecting families. The population of the United Kingdom, in common with that of many other developed countries, has experienced dramatic demographic, social and economic changes since the Second World War. The ageing of the population resulted from increasing longevity and a more recent decrease in fertility and family size.
