Policy & Practice
Policy Press publishes policy review and polemic books that aim to challenge policy for, or thinking about, a certain field of policy or practice as well as books aimed at a practice audience. These books are written in an accessible style whilst being academically sound and appropriately referenced.
Reflecting realities
Participants' perspectives on integrated communities and sustainable development
Reflecting realities explores participants' perspectives on participation structures; capacity building and the technical and professional support available; and systems for monitoring and evaluating regeneration programmes. The report includes recommendations for national and regional government, local authorities and community organisations.
Chinese older people
A need for social inclusion in two communities
Chinese older people living in the UK suffer from a number of disadvantages compounded by exclusion from both their own community and the mainstream community. Through interviews with 100 Chinese older people, this unique report provides suggestions for good policy and practice for promoting Chinese older people's inclusion in both communities.
The making of a welfare class?
Benefit receipt in Britain
Over the last three decades Britain has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of people receiving welfare benefits that has provoked fears of a growing underclass and mass welfare dependency. This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the reasons for this growth and subjects notions of welfare dependency to empirical test.
Welfare rights and responsibilities
Contesting social citizenship
This book makes an original contribution to current debates around welfare reform through a qualitative investigation of the opinions and experiences of welfare users. Competing philosophical, political and academic perspectives on citizenship and welfare are also analysed and discussed, making this book important reading for students and teachers.
Tackling institutional racism
Anti-racist policies and social work education and training
This challenging book analyses the development of anti-racist social work education and training. It critically assesses the concept of 'race', offers an historical exploration of the role of social work and provides an assessment of the backlash against the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work's anti-racist developments.
Working for a living?
Employment, benefits and the living standards of disabled people
This valuable study compares the welfare states of Sweden, Germany and Britain on the basis of social policy provision for disabled people of working age, particularly in the areas of income maintenance and employment policy.
Domestic violence and health
The response of the medical profession
This book examines the relationship between health and domestic violence. In a qualitative study of the attitudes of health professionals and the women with whom they come into contact, it gives voice to a range of issues which urgently need to be addressed providing guidance for training and practice, as well as recommendations for policy makers.
The effects of parents' employment on children's lives
This report examines links between parents' employment patterns while raising children and what happens when those children become young adults. Some of its findings carry important implications for public policy and for further research. A number are likely to prove controversial, arousing public debate concerning their meaning and relevance.
Challenging violence against women
The Canadian experience
There is widespread recognition among policy makers, professionals and activists in Britain that Canadian work on violence against women has been in the vanguard. This report brings together 'state-of-the-art' accounts of Canadian approaches to violence against women and discusses them in the context of current UK policy.
Managing public services innovation
The experience of English housing associations
Managing public services innovation provides an in-depth exploration of innovation and its management in the housing association sector. Drawing on longitudinal case studies and data sets, it explores techniques to develop evidence-based policy in the housing association sector, and makes recommendations for best practice.
The Learning Society and people with learning difficulties
This book makes a significant contribution to debates about how people with learning difficulties may achieve social inclusion, and the part which lifelong learning may play in this. Its exploration of the links between community care, education, training, employment, housing and benefits policies in the context of lifelong learning is unique.
Quality at home for older people
Involving service users in defining home care specifications
The government's NHS Plan emphasises the importance of services users' views. This report provides practical guidance on how to ensure that older people's views are heard, acted on, and monitored, in relation to service quality. It makes recommendations for ensuring that older people's views become an integral part of home care service provision.