Welfare & benefit systems

Following 5 years of systemic research exploring the efficacy and impact of Sure Start Local Programmes, this book pulls together, in a single volume, the results of the extensive National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS). 

This book explores diversity and complexity in fathering through psychoanalysis, sociology and psychology and analyses contemporary developments in social policies and welfare practices. Using a feminist perspective, it highlights the opportunities and dangers in contemporary developments for those wishing to advance gender equity.

This book, the third in Martin Powell's New Labour trilogy, analyses the legacy of Tony Blair's government for social policy, focusing on the extent to which it has changed the UK welfare state.

This book examines fathers' perceptions of their domestic violence and its impact on children, their relationships with children and their parenting practices. It is the first UK book to specifically focus on violent fathering, discussing original research in the context of domestic violence and emerging practice literature to address this problem.

This book examines the nature and meaning of 'empowerment' in the child welfare context using the family group conference approach to decision making in child welfare and protection. The authors evaluate the FGC approach so that current practice can be improved and lessons learned for other areas of work with children and families.

Using the idea of the social division of welfare as a template, this book assesses different approaches to retirement pensions policy, highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses. An invaluable resource for social science students and for those who teach them. Economists and pension practitioners will also find food for thought here.

This book evaluates the extensive and innovative range of housing services that have been developed for 16-17 year olds living in Newcastle. It provides vital indicators to other authorities and nominated RSLs of the approaches that they can take to increase successful tenancies and independent living among this age group.

This book explores the complex relationship between family change and public policy responses in EU member states and candidate countries. It combines broad-brush scrutiny of demographic trends, policy contexts and debates in contemporary European societies with a fine-grain analysis of the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of families.

This book is the first in-depth exploration of grandparents' relationships with adult children and grandchildren in divorced families. It asks what part grandparents might play in public policy and whether measures should be taken to support their grandparenting role. Do they have a special place in family life that ought to be recognised in law?

Christopher Deeming and Paul Smyth, together with internationally renowned contributors, illustrate how the merging of ‘social investment’ and ‘inclusive growth and development’ agendas, together with the environmental imperative of ‘sustainability’, is forging an important new social policy framework and shaping a new global development agenda.

Leading interdisciplinary scholars focus on the ‘social’ of social policy. This ground-breaking volume tackles pressing ‘social questions’ and critically engages with contested conceptions of ‘the social’ which are increasingly deployed by international institutions and policy makers.

Children and young people's cultural worlds offers a critical introduction to childhood in the digital age and challenges adult concerns, highlighting instead the diversity of children's experiences and relationships with each other.