SOCIAL SERVICES & WELFARE, CRIMINOLOGY

In responding to the needs of working parents and employers, the Government has introduced legislation which encourages family-friendly initiatives to be determined jointly and voluntarily between employers and employees. Focusing on the key sector of financial services, Family-friendly working? reviews how companies are handling this process..

This book provides a rigorous and challenging review of recent research in the realms of communication and cultural diversity. Focusing on health communication interventions concerning service users who may lack fluency in English, it shows that meeting the needs of all health service users depends on both structures and processes of communication.

Describing social assistance 'careers' in different national and urban contexts, this innovative book documents the strong interplay between personal biographies and policy patterns - a particularly useful perspective which complements the more structural, top-down approach of much international work in social policy.

This report investigates the circumstances, needs, views and life experiences of black young people with caring responsibilities. It highlights significant gaps in service provision, which result in young people undertaking caring responsibilities, and makes recommendations to improve services.

This study focuses on the contribution that studies of the post-war 'welfare state' can make to debates about welfare. Drawing on community care debates from 1971 to 1993, it illuminates contemporary concerns about issues as rationing care, the health and social care divide, residential care and growing emphasis on provider competition.

This new study uses longitudinal data to provide new insights into the changing dynamics of lives of women today. In particular, it explores the potential of longitudinal or life course analysis as a powerful tool for appreciating the gender dimension of social life.

Debates about citizenship in Europe are increasingly topical as the EU expands. This book charts the development of mobility and welfare rights for retired people moving or returning home under the Free Movement of Persons provisions. It raises important issues around the future of social citizenship in an increasingly global and mobile world.

This book summarises and builds on current knowledge and research about direct payments in the UK and considers developments in other European countries. It identifies good practice in the area and explores the implications of direct payments, both for service users and for social work staff.

Current policy encourages 'partnerships' between statutory organisations and professionals; public and private sectors; with voluntary organisations and local communities. But is this collaborative discourse as distinctive as the government claims? These claims are critically examined, using evidence from a wide range of welfare partnerships.

The NHS and Community Care Act (1990) specifically emphasises the health and social care needs of disabled people from minority ethnic communities, urging local authorities to be culturally sensitive to individual needs. This report examines what a culturally sensitive service looks like from the users' perspective.

Evaluating New Labour's welfare reforms builds on the analysis of bestselling 'New Labour, New Welfare State?' (The Policy Press, 1999) to examine the Government's welfare policies to the end of its first term. It moves beyond a descriptive account to provide an evaluative perspective on New Labour's welfare reforms.

Social Policy Review is an annual selection of commissioned articles focusing on developments and debates in social policy. Social Policy Review 14 reviews a varied and interesting selection of social policy developments in Britain and internationally, and sets current policy developments in a broader context of key trends and debates.