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).

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Showing 205-216 of 280 items.

Older people and the law

The book is a much-needed revised and updated edition of Elders and the law (PEPAR Publications, 1993). It describes the legal framework for working with older people following the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 and the modernising agenda in health and social care.

Policy Press

Transforming society?

Social work and sociology

This book explores the sociological basis of contemporary society and shows how social workers experience tensions and contradictions in practice.

Policy Press

Black issues in social work and social care

This book builds upon popular texts addressing anti-discriminatory frameworks but focuses specifically upon black perspectives in social work. It addresses new developments and charts the impact of social changes and new literature shaping social work theory and practice with black and minority individuals, families and communities.

Policy Press

Social Work with People with Learning Difficulties

Making a Difference

Full of up-to-date case studies, practice examples and points for reflection, this exciting textbook explores theoretical frameworks for working with people with learning difficulties.

Policy Press

Understanding agency

Social welfare and change

This textbook provides a straightforward introduction to the concept of agency and how it can usefully inform the practice of social welfare. Demonstrating a model of achievable change, it traces the origins of agency and explores the contributions of key thinkers from sociological and social policy perspectives.

Policy Press

Social Work in the Community

Making a Difference

Social work in the community is a textbook offering practice guidance to students, practice assessors and practitioners on how social work practice takes place in the community within a political, theoretical, methodological and ethical framework. 

Policy Press

Recording in social work

Not just an administrative task

This highly topical book explores the conflicting demands on social workers as they record information on case files, and will stimulate a debate on how to achieve more effective recording in social work.

Policy Press

Social Work and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans People

Making a Difference

This important textbook examines how practitioners and student social workers can provide appropriate care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people across the lifespan (including work with children and families and older people) and considers key challenges in social work practice.

Policy Press

Practice Research Partnerships in Social Work

Making a Difference

This comprehensive, accessibly written resource, is designed to help students and practitioners explore partnerships in creating, contributing, consuming, commissioning or critiquing evidence in and for social work practice.

Policy Press

Research Ethics in the Real World

Euro-Western and Indigenous Perspectives

Research Ethics in the Real World highlights the links between research ethics and individual, social, professional, institutional, and political ethics. Helen Kara considers all stages of the research process and provides guidance for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods researchers about how to act ethically throughout.

Policy Press

Understanding the Mixed Economy of Welfare

Edited by Martin Powell

This updated edition, written by social policy and welfare experts, shows how the mixed economy of welfare links with the important conceptual and policy debates.

Policy Press

The Well-Connected Community

A Networking Approach to Community Development

There is a growing recognition of the importance of networking for the vitality and cohesion of community life. Now in its third edition, and substantially updated, this textbook combines practical experience and theory for people working with and for communities.

Policy Press