Social Work and Community Development

Alongside the current media preoccupation with high risk offenders, there has been a shift towards a greater focus on risk and public protection in UK criminal justice policy. This report draws together a distinguished panel to consider both the theory and application of the risk concept in work with young people and young adults that offend.

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.

What is the social cost of privatising public services? And what effect has the failure of previous privatisations had? This book tells how social work services are now being out-sourced to private companies and how this trend threatens the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children and disabled adults.

Current youth justice policy aims to introduce principles of restorative justice and involve victims in responses to crime. The challenges involved in delivering this in a form that is sensitive to victims are considerable. This report provides an evaluation of the manner in which one Youth Offending Service sought to integrate victims.

This report presents the findings from the first national, representative survey of public attitudes to youth crime and youth justice in England and Wales. It carries clear policy implications in relation to both public education and reform of the youth justice system.

The 2008 UK government Youth Crime Action Plan emphasises early intervention in work with young people who offend or considered to be 'at risk' of offending. This approach includes targeted work with families and a reduction in the numbers of young people entering the justice system. This report takes a critical look at early intervention policies.

Learning from professional errors in social work is vital for successful reflective practice. With plenty of practice examples and questions for reflection, this is essential reading for social work students, practitioners and managers.

Approved Mental Health Professionals must possess and deploy a range of skills, knowledge and values in order to make ethically complex decisions on behalf of people with severe mental health difficulties. This invaluable handbook considers these challenges and provides in-depth guidance on all key aspects of the role.

Four years after the publication of the influential Munro Report (2011) this important publication draws together a range of experts working in the field of child protection to critically examine what impact the reforms have had on multi agency child protection systems in this country, at both local and national level.

The book shows how children are affected by conflict, explores why they respond to conflict in different ways, and provides clear, practical guidance on the best ways to ameliorate the effects.

This essential practical guide to best practice in adult safeguarding enables students and practitioners to develop the skills, knowledge and ethical awareness to confidently address the challenges of adult safeguarding across a wide-range of practice contexts.

This book outlines a new, human focussed model for public services – an approach focused on achieving and maintaining wellbeing, rather than on reacting to crisis or attempting to ‘fix’ people.