Social Work

This book offers a unique analysis of the challenges facing contemporary social work that considers the multi-faceted threats to the profession. It provides in-depth reflections on the future of social care practice and solutions for students and practitioners.

This engaging and accessible text, now in its third edition, provides a comprehensive introduction to health and social care. This new edition has been updated to cover recent developments, including the integrated care agenda, potential regional devolution and austerity.

What does it mean to be a volunteer in the UK today? This book adds new insights into volunteering from the perspective of the individual, the organisation and the community .

This book describes the local and national politics, professional concerns and public interest that surrounded the inquiry following the death of Maria Colwell in 1973.

This book explores issues central to contemporary theoretical debates around the nature of trust, linking abstract concerns to empirical analysis with interviews with service-users, practitioners and managers.

This original edited collection explores the value of public engagement in a wider social science context. Its main themes range from the dialogic character of social science to the pragmatic responses to the managerial policies underpinning the restructuring of Higher Education.

This timely analysis sets out the full impacts of policy reform, austerity and marketisation on our country’s mental health services. Rooted in the experiences of service users and providers, it provides valuable perspectives on our evolving practical and organisational responses to mental distress.

Police officers deal with mental illness-related incidents on an almost daily basis. Ian Cummins explores the policy failures that have led to this situation, and considers how the individuals in police officers’ care should be supported by community mental health agencies.

Rather than being seen simply as social policy implementors, in recent decades there has been recognition of the unique insights that social workers can bring to policy formulation. This book offers a theoretical framework for understanding why social workers engage in policy, and the implications for research, education and practice.

Social work education and interventions with Black African families are frequently impaired because of structural discrimination and racism.

Rooted in rich empirical work with practitioners and educators, this urgent, scholarly and accessible book emphasises that ‘Black Lives Matter’.

This book tackles the prevailing contradiction within policy analysis, that rigorous thought should be uncontaminated by values, despite policy analysis being inherently values based. In resolving the issue, this book provides a new, solid foundation for policy analysis.

A first of its kind, this book explores child protection systems in non-Western, low- and middle-income countries, offering a descriptive, yet analytical, account of the development and current stage of practice in twelve different countries.