Books published by Policy Press

This collection of innovative approaches to social work placements offers hope in the current climate of cuts to services and over-regulation. The international contributions offer practical guidance and challenge conventional approaches to placement finding, teaching and assessment in field education.

This is the classic assessment of the state of child well-being in the UK. This fourth edition has been updated to review the latest evidence, including the impact of the economic crisis and austerity measures since 2008. An essential resource.

As housing supply in England reaches crisis point, Duncan Bowie provides a critical review of housing policy under successive UK governments. From Blair's New Labour and Cameron's Coalition government to the 2016 Housing and Planning Act, Bowie demonstrates how successive governments have failed to provide adequate, affordable housing, leading to a chronic lack of provision. Exploring the inter-relationship between housing, planning and land policies, Bowie puts forward a reform programme based on an alternative set of policy priorities and delivery mechanisms, arguing the case for an integrated approach on land, taxation, planning and public investment to provide radical solutions to a growing crisis.

This book focuses on older people as makers of meaning and insight, highlighting the ways older people form part of social and symbolic landscapes and the types of wisdom they can offer.

This book offers a fresh new approach to the study of housing, exploring the meaning that housing has for individuals and households by examining 'housing pathways'. Although drawing on British experiences, the methodology and theoretical framework used are applicable to the study of housing in any national context.

Combining theory and international practice,this book examines how local government can develop active citizens and make a difference to the well-being of those in disadvantaged areas.

This important volume provides the foundation for a shift in policy learning on a global scale and demonstrates the need to take account of the psychological consequences of poverty for policy to be effective.

The UK government's reforms of the NHS and public health system require partnerships if they are to succeed. Those partnerships concerned with public health are especially important and are deemed to be a 'good thing' which add, rather than consume, value. Yet the significant emphasis on partnership working to secure effective policy and service delivery exists despite the evidence testifying to how difficult it is to make partnerships work or achieve results. Partnership working in public health presents the findings from a detailed study of public health partnerships in England. The lessons from the research are used to explore the government's changes in public health now being implemented, most of which centre on new partnerships called Health and Wellbeing Boards that have been established to work differently from their predecessors.The book assesses their likely impact and the implications for the future of public health partnerships. Drawing on systems thinking, it argues that partnerships can only succeed if they work in quite different ways. The book will therefore appeal to the public health community and students of health policy.

A wide range of contributors focus on major issues in ageing such as autonomy, agency, frailty, lifestyle, social isolation, dementia and professional challenges in social work and participatory research.

This much needed book analyses public inquiries and serious case reviews to reveal the dynamics of hostility and aggression which contribute to the failure to protect children.

Written by a leading practitioner and academic in the field of youth and community work this multidisciplinary book reflects on the theoretical, social and religious impacts on the lives of Muslim young people.

This report examines how different people use public spaces and analyses how social interactions vary by age, gender or place. A free pdf version of this report is available online at www.jrf.org.uk

Set in the context of New Labour's emphasis on 'modernisation', and reflecting the growing emphasis on policy making as a skill, this unique book combines both academic and practitioner perspectives to provide critical consideration of contemporary policy-making and highlight examples of good practice at all levels of government.

This book examines key philosophical, ethical, legal and professional practice issues in the area of privacy and confidentiality and explores their implications for policy and practice.

"Disadvantaged by where you live?" offers a major contribution to academic debates on the neighbourhood both as a sphere of governance and as a point of public service delivery under New Labour since 1997.

Richard Titmuss was one of the 20th century's foremost social policy theorists. This accessible Reader is the first compendium of his work on public health, health promotion and health inequalities.

The turn to biographical methods in social science is invigorating the relationship between policy and practice. This book shows how biographical methods can improve theoretical understanding of professional practice, as well as enrich the development of professionals, and promote more meaningful practitioner - service user relationships.

This book provides a review of the findings of the largest ever programme of cities research in the UK, the 'Cities: Competitiveness and Cohesion programme'. Leading experts present the findings of this wide-ranging programme organised around themes of competitiveness, social cohesion and the role of policy and governance.

'Poverty' and 'social exclusion' have become increasingly important topics on the European research agenda. This book provides an invaluable review of the available literature and presents major new thinking in terms of theory, understanding and data analysis.

Encompassing an extensive range of print and online media, this reader brings together a selection of highly influential writings by Danny Dorling which look at inequality and social justice.

This collection, written by leading health policy researchers, examines the role that case-studies play in British health policy, covering key health policy literatures in the policy process, analytical frameworks and seminal moments of the NHS.

This important book brings together many of the leading contributors in the field and provides a compelling manifesto for change in social justice.

This unique Reader traces the changing fortunes of community development through a selection of readings from key writers.

This comprehensive textbook provides a thorough analysis of the nature of European societies across the expanded EU member states. It address a range of issues relating to Europeanisation and key topics such as inequality, migration, poverty, population and family, the labour market and education.

Around 210 million children are still in slavery today. This groundbreaking book shows why they remain locked in slavery, the ways in which they are exploited and how they can be emancipated. It also reminds us that all consumers are implicated in modern childhood slavery.

This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty.

This book analyses money, health, place, quality of life and identity, and highlights the gaps of treatment and outcomes between older and younger people, and between different groups of older people. It provides strong evidence of the scale of disadvantage in the UK and suggests actions that could begin to change the picture of unequal ageing.

This edited book provides a hard-hitting and deliberately provocative overview of the relationship between evidence, policy and practice, how policy is implemented and how research can and should influence the policy process.

"The consumer in public services" critiques established assumptions surrounding citizenship and consumption. Drawing on empirical research, it challenges existing stereotypes about the 'consumer as chooser' and shows how we must develop a more sophisticated understanding of consumers, examining their place and role as users of public services.

"Securing respect" contains essays from leading academics in the field that consider the origins, current interpretations and possible future for the Respect Agenda. It explores various policy and theoretical discourses relating to 'respect', behavioural expectations and anti-social behaviour.