Policy Press

Textbooks

Education is at the heart of our mission to make a difference. Our goal is to support students’ learning with materials that foster understanding, confidence and skills.

Take a look at our textbooks below or browse by subject.

We have more resources, including free journal articles and Open Access titles, available on our student resources page.

All our books are available on e-inspection for lecturers who want to consider the title(s) for use on their course reading lists. You can order an e-inspection copy here. Click ‘Request Access’ and then use the search function to request a digital sample copy of our titles. You will need to create a username and password to access your book(s).

Read our terms and conditions here.

Fill out the inspection copy survey

Don’t forget, if you sign up to our newsletter you will receive a discount on books purchased on our website.

Showing 157-168 of 280 items.

What is professional social work?

What is Professional Social Work? is a now classic analysis of social work as a discourse between three aspects of practice: social order, therapeutic and transformational perspectives. It enables social workers to analyse and value the role of social work in present-day multiprofessional social care.

Policy Press

Children and Young People's Worlds

This substantially updated new edition sets out the contexts of children's and young people’s lives and encourages students to explore their complexities and contexts. Each chapter challenges students’ assumptions and examines crucial issues in the field, such as participation, race, and transnational childhoods.

Policy Press

How to Use Social Work Theory in Practice

An Essential Guide

In this clear and systematic book covering the both general practice concepts and theoretical insights, best-selling author Malcolm Payne shows you how to work with the main social work theories and practice techniques and pinpoint their strengths and limitations.

Policy Press

What Works Now?

Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice

Building substantially on the earlier, landmark text, What Works? (Policy Press, 2000), this book brings together key thinkers and researchers to provide a clearly-structured review of the aspirations and contemporary realities of evidence-informed policy and practice.

Policy Press

Key Issues in Corrections

Key Issues in Corrections critically analyzes the most important challenges affecting the correctional system in the USA, offering a no-nonsense explanation of the problems of correctional officers, correctional managers, prisoners, and the public.

Policy Press

Critical Practice with Children and Young People

This new edition for advanced students and practitioners is substantially updated to reflect the changes in the field since the publication of the first edition and contains multiple additional chapters discussing new and emerging topics for those in the fields of social work, education and health care.

Policy Press

Foundations for offender management

Theory, law and policy for contemporary practice

'Offender management' for probation means continuing commitment to constructive work with individuals who break the law but in a changing multi-agency context. Providing a comprehensive introduction to criminal justice work, this book negotiates the structures set by law and policy.

Policy Press

Understanding Childhood

A Cross Disciplinary Approach

Understanding childhood is a fresh look at how childhood has changed in recent years and reveals how children's needs and experiences have achieved a new visibility

Policy Press

Childhoods in Context

Edited by Alison Clark

The book offers insights into childhood by focusing on accounts of home and family, school, public spaces and sites of work in local and global settings.

Policy Press

Local Childhoods, Global Issues

This interdisciplinary textbook examines children's lives across the world, acknowledging the great differences as well as points of comparison, between childhoods in different contexts.

Policy Press

Key Thinkers in Childhood Studies

This book presents the perspectives of 22 leading figures involved in shaping the field of Childhood Studies over the last 30 years. They reflect on the changes that have taken place in the study of children and childhood, discuss ideas underpinning the field, examine current dilemmas and explore challenges for the future.

Policy Press

Children and Young People’s Cultural Worlds

Children and young people's cultural worlds offers a critical introduction to childhood in the digital age and challenges adult concerns, highlighting instead the diversity of children's experiences and relationships with each other.

Policy Press