Social Work - Policy and Practice

This report investigates the circumstances, needs, views and life experiences of black young people with caring responsibilities. It highlights significant gaps in service provision, which result in young people undertaking caring responsibilities, and makes recommendations to improve services.

The government's NHS Plan emphasises the importance of services users' views. This report provides practical guidance on how to ensure that older people's views are heard, acted on, and monitored, in relation to service quality. It makes recommendations for ensuring that older people's views become an integral part of home care service provision.

Drawing on interviews with older people, local authority care managers and direct payments support service workers, this topical report looks at how older people use direct payments and how they make them work.

The UK government has identified Faith communities as important players in community development and regeneration. But religion is also associated with conflict and division. How far is this faith in 'Faith' justified? How far should Faith communities comply? This report assesses the debate and the evidence. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk

Local urban high streets have the potential to meet policy aspirations with regard to sustainability and social inclusion, yet they have frequently been neglected. Drawing on case-studies in three different locations, this report provides a wealth of findings produced from a variety of sources.

A free pdf is available at www.jrf.org.uk

Current youth justice policy aims to introduce principles of restorative justice and involve victims in responses to crime. The challenges involved in delivering this in a form that is sensitive to victims are considerable. This report provides an evaluation of the manner in which one Youth Offending Service sought to integrate victims.

This new and updated third edition of the best-selling "Calculating a fair price for care" estimates the potential cost to the public sector of paying fair market fees to a fully modernised care home sector.

This book looks at how community capacity building is delivered within neighbourhood regeneration programmes, focusing on the key issue of resourcing. This review is framed within the context of the government's emerging national strategy for neighbourhood renewal, and the New Commitment to Regeneration initiative.

'Regeneration', 'mainstreaming', 'community involvement', 'evidence-based policy', 'public service reform' - terms central to the government's policy programme for tackling social deprivation. This report describes how an East London community organisation has worked to give these terms practical meaning through its Social Enterprise Zone project.

Reflecting realities explores participants' perspectives on participation structures; capacity building and the technical and professional support available; and systems for monitoring and evaluating regeneration programmes. The report includes recommendations for national and regional government, local authorities and community organisations.

Learning from professional errors in social work is vital for successful reflective practice. With plenty of practice examples and questions for reflection, this is essential reading for social work students, practitioners and managers.

The 2008 UK government Youth Crime Action Plan emphasises early intervention in work with young people who offend or considered to be 'at risk' of offending. This approach includes targeted work with families and a reduction in the numbers of young people entering the justice system. This report takes a critical look at early intervention policies.