Textbooks

This is the first book to explore the public policy process through 19 contributions from diverse scholars from all over the world, using empirical material to demonstrate how many of the key theories and concepts may be applied to its analysis.

Written by a team of leading social policy analysts, this is the leading textbook in the field and provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of international actors and social policy formation in global context. It includes new chapters on global poverty and inequality, social protection, criminal justice and education.

This fully revised, updated and extended edition of a bestselling social policy textbook is extensively reworked and adapted to meet the needs of its international readership. Laying out the architecture of social policy as a field of study, it provides a sense of the scope, range and purpose of the subject.

This critical and reflexive book looks closely at the pivotal but demanding role that leadership and management play in promoting social work and social care.

This exciting new book outlines the state of practice now in flux within structures created by New Labour but moving in a different direction under the Coalition Government. It explores opportunities for a fresh orientation that places young people at the centre and works collaboratively to nurture strengths, competences and capital.

This book focuses on the drive towards increasingly integrated ways of working in children’s services across the UK. The new edition of this bestselling textbook critically examines the potential and reality of closer ‘working together’, asking whether such new ways of working will be able to respond more effectively to the needs of children.

The second edition of this bestselling book provides a concise 'warts and all' introduction to partnership and integration, summarising updated references to current policy and research, setting out useful frameworks and approaches, and helping policy makers and practitioners to work more effectively together.

Writing is more difficult than it seems. This e-book will get you started and keep you going. It demystifies the craft of writing, and offers lots of tips and ideas to make writing manageable.

Social work and poverty: A critical approach provides a timely review of the key issues facing social workers and service users in working together to combat poverty, covering key areas including access to food, obesity and drug use.

When you've collected all your data, what do you do next? Whether it's qualitative or quantitative, this e-book explains how to prepare, code, and analyse your data. The book offers clear guidance to help you turn a morass of raw data into cogent findings.

Data collection is often the first thing people think of in connection with research. This e-book outlines some of the key issues and offers lots of short-cuts to save you time and stress.

In reality, people need to fit research in with all their other commitments. This e-book is full of practical hints and tips to show you how to manage research alongside work, family, and social life.