Policy Press

Rapid Responses

Social issues regularly arise that need social commentary interventions responding swiftly to events to influence thinking, research, policy and practice.

Our new Rapid Responses - 20-40k words long, digital-only and published just seven weeks from submission - aim to do just that, allowing authors to make a timely impact and influence thinking on current affairs. To achieve this short turnaround our Rapid Responses follow a bespoke process to help get this important research and commentary out into the world as quickly as possible in EPUB and ePDF formats.

Rapid Responses are written by international academics, policy makers and professionals, charity sector workers and activists to inspire and motivate by presenting alternative paths for social change.

If you are researching the pandemic and think your work would be a good fit, please get in touch with the Commissioning Editor for your subject area. If you think your work would benefit from a longer form, or a physical publication, you may be interested in our COVID-19 Collection.

Our Rapid Responses are also available on our Amazon Store.

Showing 1-12 of 16 items.

Who Needs Nurseries?

We Do!

The role that nurseries play in supplementing family care is an important subject – but in the UK, there is currently little consensus about what nurseries should provide, how they should be run, and who should pay for them. In this book, Helen Penn asks: is there a more considered way ahead?

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

Beyond Bars

A Path Forward from 50 Years of Mass Incarceration in the United States

The year 2023 marks 50 years of mass incarceration in the United States and this timely volume addresses the ramifications of this policy on justice-impacted people and our communities. It offers practical solutions for advocates, policy and lawmakers for addressing mass incarceration and its effects to create a more just, fair and safer society.

Policy Press
  • AvailablePDF

Researching the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Blueprint for the Social Sciences

Challenging social science’s established orthodoxies, this book is a call for academia to embrace new theoretical frameworks and research methods to better understand the reality of life in a post-Covid world.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

A Watershed Moment for Social Policy and Human Rights?

Where Next for the UK Post-COVID

This book demonstrates that an alternative approach to social policy, based on human rights and social justice, is necessary to tackle the existing systemic inequalities brought to the foreground by COVID-19.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

Socially Distanced Activism

Voices of Lived Experience of Poverty During COVID-19

Drawing on case studies from APLE Collective groups, this book interrogates the term ‘lived experience’. It critically investigates how knowledge gained from lived experiences of poverty is integral to developing effective COVID-19 policies.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

COVID-19 and Co-production in Health and Social Care Research, Policy, and Practice

Volume 1: The Challenges and Necessity of Co-production

The first of a two-volume set, this book explores the need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how to do this. It gives voice to a diversity of marginalised communities to illustrate how they have been affected and to demonstrate why co-produced responses are so important.

Policy Press
  • AvailablePDF

COVID-19 and Co-production in Health and Social Care Research, Policy, and Practice

Volume 2: Co-production Methods and Working Together at a Distance

The second in a two-volume set, this book explores the need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how to do this. Exploring a variety of case studies from across the global North and South, the book focuses on methods and means of co-producing during a pandemic.

Policy Press
  • AvailablePDF

The Challenge of Controlling COVID-19

Public Health and Social Care Policy in England During the First Wave

This book analyses the political and long-term systemic factors associated with the failures to control COVID-19 in England. Exploring the role of key policy actors, it focuses on two policy failings during the first wave: the establishment of a ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ system and responses to the high death rate in care homes for older people.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

COVID-19 and Risk

Policy Making in a Global Pandemic

Drawing on case studies from the UK, China, Japan, New Zealand and the US this text explores policy responses to COVID-19 through the lens of risk. The book considers how different countries framed the pandemic, categorised their populations and communicated risk. It also evaluates the role of the media, conspiracy theories and hindsight.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

Researching in the Age of COVID-19

Volume I: Response and Reassessment

Edited by Helen Kara and Su-ming Khoo

Part of a series of three, this book showcases new research methods and emerging approaches. Focusing on Response and Reassessment, it has three parts: the first looks at the turn to digital methods; the second reviews methods in hand and the final part reassesses different needs and capabilities.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

Researching in the Age of COVID-19

Volume III: Creativity and Ethics

Edited by Helen Kara and Su-ming Khoo

Part of a series of three, this book explores dimensions of creativity and ethics. It has three parts: the first covers creative approaches to researching. The second considers concerns around research ethics and ethics more generally, and the final part addresses different ways of approaching creativity and ethics through collaboration.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB

Researching in the Age of COVID-19

Volume II: Care and Resilience

Edited by Helen Kara and Su-ming Khoo

Part of a series of three, this book connects themes of care and resilience, addressing their common concern with wellbeing. It has three parts: addressing researchers’ wellbeing, considering participants’ wellbeing, and exploring care and resilience as a shared and mutually entangled concern.

Policy Press
  • AvailableEPUB