Social welfare & social services

Bringing together a range of perspectives from practice, lived experience and academia, this is an accessible and timely guide to children’s services reform. Critically considering the impact of the MacAlister Review, the book highlights both the positive and negative aspects of reform, before setting out alternative policy and practice directions.

EPDF and EPUB are available open access under CC BY NC ND licence. This publication was supported by University of Essex's open access fund.

Peter Appleton builds on research interviews with care-experienced young adults, and on cross-disciplinary theories of planning and of emotions, to develop a model of planning for young people leaving care.

This book explores the advantages of the capability approach and offers a way forward in addressing conceptual and empirical issues as they apply specifically to social policy research and practice.

Challenging the ethics of care as a tradeable commodity, this book introduces the concept of ailment as a framework for understanding social care. Providing examples from Britain and Finland, it demonstrates how ailment shapes all societies, and by addressing the marketisation of care, the authors bring to light increasing inequalities in care.

This timely book addresses an overlooked area of criminal justice by focusing on the reality of pregnancy and new motherhood in prison. Based on the experiences of women in mother and baby units, it passionately argues the case for minimising harm, making key reading for criminology and midwifery students and researchers.

Using the UK government’s play strategy for England (2008-10) as a case study, this is the first book to look in detail at children’s play within public policy. It is an essential tool for practitioners and campaigners around the world.

Explains the challenges that collective welfare faces, and explores the complexities involved in delivering it, including debates about who benefits from welfare and how and where it is delivered.

This unique book is a clear and detailed introduction that analyses how restorative justice nurtures empathy, exploring key themes such as responsibility, shame, forgiveness and closure. Using case studies, the book offers a fresh angle on a topic that is of growing interest both in the UK and internationally.

This book provides a much-needed introductory guide to the issues surrounding pension policy and offers a critique of some of the dominant ideas and assumptions. Noting the intense debate that currently surrounds the subject, the book explores a wider view of the continuing issues about pension policy.

How a neighbourhood is viewed can affect the lives of those who live there and the attitudes and behaviour of others towards them. This report examines the increasing use and sophistication of Internet-Based Neighbourhood Information Systems and considers their potential impact on how neighbourhoods are viewed. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk

This unique and passionate book calls for a cultural revolution within youth work. Doug Nicholls draws on the best of youth work's past to redesign the youth work map for today. No student or practitioner should miss it.

This exciting and practical book is filled to the brim with useful ideas for busy practitioners. Building on the work of Paulo Freire, theories are presented in interesting and straightforward ways to provide an everyday reference for practice.