SOCIAL SERVICES & WELFARE, CRIMINOLOGY

Recent urban disturbances, concerns about the fate of asylum seekers and renewed debates about the nature of ethnic identity and citizenship have all combined to give ethnic differences a high public and policy profile. This book explores the diverse experiences of ethnic disadvantage and challenges common assumptions.

This book examines interprofessional work with families in which mothers have a mental health problem and where there are also concerns about child protection. Breakdowns in interprofessional collaboration, issues of risk and resources are all addressed. Mothers' views and experiences are contrasted with professional perspectives.

This report explores the ways in which schools serving two economically and socially disadvantaged urban areas have attempted to balance their educational aims with growing demands to engage in community life. It focuses on the relationship between the schools and their communities and on outcomes in terms of individual and community development.

As citizens we need information to exercise our social rights and responsibilities. However, information provision about welfare services is patchy and the 'information poor' are often disadvantaged in access to those services. This book explores how government information policies directly influence which service users claim their entitlements.

Poverty street addresses one of the UK's major social policy concerns: the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest of the country. It is an account of neighbourhood decline, a portrait of conditions in the most disadvantaged areas and an up-to-date analysis of the impact of the government's neighbourhood renewal policies.

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?

Drawing on a large-scale 28-year survey, this report analyses entitlements to child-contingent taxes and benefits for thousands of households. It examines how support has varied across households and over time, separates the impact of policy from socio-economic changes and compares government support for children with estimates of the actual costs.

This groundbreaking book investigates and documents corporate influence on social policies at global/regional, national and local levels. It argues that we cannot understand the recent history and present direction of the welfare state unless we focus on the role that business has played in its development. 

Many health, education and social service initiatives aim to implement better multi-agency working between agencies and professionals. But what difference does this sort of change make to those on the receiving end? This book explores the impact of multi-agency working on disabled children and the families and professionals who support them.

Drawing on interviews with older people, local authority care managers and direct payments support service workers, this topical report looks at how older people use direct payments and how they make them work.

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.

Britain's New Labour government claims to support the cause of human rights. At the same time, it claims that we can have no rights without responsibility and that dependency on the state is irresponsible. The ethics of welfare offers a critique of this paradox and discusses the ethical conundrum it implies for the future of social welfare.