Why manpower reform was still unfinished when war began

Did the government decide against protecting essential workers, or had it failed to consider the issue?

The system was confused and already undergoing reform when war began, with the organizations meant to resolve it still forming.

Britain's manpower arrangements were already undergoing reform when war broke out, in Daniel's reading of the official history. The organizations meant to manage allocation were still forming, which left them trying to repair the system under wartime pressure. He judges that a later outbreak around 1941 or 1942 would have given the reforms more time to function. His explanation concerns the timing and administration of reform, rather than establishing that every listed trade lacked protection throughout the early war.