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.

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Showing 13-24 of 279 items.

The Ann Oakley reader

Gender, women and social science

Edited and selected by the author, this reader starts with work first published in the early 1970s. Ann Oakley's research and writing on sex and gender, housework, motherhood, women's health, and social science have influenced many inside and beyond social science, helping to shape the academic study of women and gender up to the present day.

Policy Press

Beyond listening

Children's perspectives on early childhood services

This book is the first of its kind to focus on listening to young children, both from an international perspective and through combining theory, practice and reflection. With contributions and examples from researchers and practitioners it examines how listening to young children in early childhood services is understood and practiced.

Policy Press

Order from chaos

Responding to traumatic events

Iin the aftermath of traumatic events, there is a need for improved understanding of the needs of individuals and communitie. This new edition consolidates the core elements of good practice, while bringing theory and practice issues fully up-to-date.

Policy Press

Policy analysis for practice

Applying social policy

This book introduces students and practitioners to the concepts and methods required to undertake the analysis and review of policy and its implementation. Focusing on understanding and skills for a growing area of practice, it combines material from public and social administration with examples and application to social policy and services.

Policy Press

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

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

Working in group care

Social work and social care in residential and day care settings

Working in group care (ie residential and day services) is a challenging and complex task, demanding great skill, patience, knowledge and understanding. This book explains how best practice can be achieved through the focused and engaged work of individuals and teams who are well supported and managed. 

Policy Press

Social work and people with dementia

Partnerships, practice and persistence

Current community care policies and increasing numbers of older people needing assistance mean that all social workers must be up-to-date in their knowledge, skills and attitudes towards people with dementia and their carers. This book, written by experienced social workers, provides guidance on best practice in a readable and jargon-free style.

Policy Press

The idea of poverty

Making a committed argument for a participative, inclusive understanding of the term, Paul Spicker examines views about what poverty is and what should be done about it.

Policy Press

Understanding the mixed economy of welfare

Edited by Martin Powell

Although state provision may have dominated in Britain since 1945, there is a growing movement towards welfare pluralism - a mixed economy of welfare - involving private, voluntary and informal sectors. This book, written by social policy and welfare experts, sheds light on this neglected area of social policy.

Policy Press

Sexual issues in social work

This book provides busy practitioners with a ready reference for the day-to-day problems relating to sex and sexuality that they are likely to face in key areas of engagement, such as promoting sexual health, preventing sexual violence, working with those subjected to sexual abuse, and engaging with the complexities of contemporary sexualities.

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