Social work

This is the first book to explore the application of complexity theory to difficult practice issues in criminal justice and social work and brings together experts in this emerging field to address complexity theory from a range of perspectives, providing a detailed but accessible discussion of the key issues to whole systems approaches.

This collection of 12 new and revised essays on child care and children’s services gives a unique and lasting review of child care services explaining significant political, economic, legal and ideological aspects of this history from the mid-1850s.

This book presents the first collection of Robert Pinker’s influential essays in one edited volume, discussing the key concepts underpinning the study of social policy and the ways in which welfare theories and ideologies together with public expectations have shaped the political processes of policy making.

Through the perspectives of young people themselves, this book reviews changes in policy and practices that affected the generation of young people who grew up in state care in China during the last 20 years.

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.

Lessons from child protection errors and mistakes in 11 countries in Europe and North America are drawn together in a stimulating study from leading researchers in the field. By comparing and contrasting impacts, responses and responsibilities, it deepens understanding of how child protection systems fail and points to ideas for risk reduction.

A fresh approach to supporting children who experience parental separation and divorce. Murch argues for preventative intervention which responds to children's worries when they first present them, without waiting until things have gone badly wrong.

Paving the way for a government to fulfil its responsibility to families, this authoritative and critical account of the Troubled Families Programme reveals the inconsistencies and contradictions within it, and issues of deceit and malpractice in its operation.

Understanding street-level bureaucracy gathers internationally acclaimed scholars to provide a state of the art account of theory and research on modern street-level bureaucracy, filling an important gap in the literature on public policy delivery.

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 detailed study of children’s everyday practices in a small deprived neighbourhood of post-socialist Bratislava, provides a novel insight on the formation of children’s agency and the multitude of resources it comes from.

This timely book, part of the Ageing in a Global Context series, addresses the gap in knowledge about late life repartnering and provides a comprehensive map of the changing landscape of late life intimacy.