Social Work - Policy and Practice

Important reforms are taking place in children's services in the UK, with a move towards greater integration. In England, Scotland and Sweden, early childhood education and care, childcare for older children, and schools are now the responsibility of education departments. This book is the first to examine this major shift in policy.

This book examines interprofessional work with families in which mothers have a mental health problem and where there are also concerns about child protection. Breakdowns in interprofessional collaboration, issues of risk and resources are all addressed. Mothers' views and experiences are contrasted with professional perspectives.

This book provides a rigorous and challenging review of recent research in the realms of communication and cultural diversity. Focusing on health communication interventions concerning service users who may lack fluency in English, it shows that meeting the needs of all health service users depends on both structures and processes of communication.

As the prospect of a legal right to advocacy inches closer, so the need to scrutinise its key values and practices becomes urgent. Although widely acclaimed as a 'good thing', there is little agreement as to how advocacy should be implemented, funded or evaluated. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the benefits of advocacy.

This book is an invaluable resource, employing a 'bottom-up' approach to learning. It presents vivid examples of social work practice with children and families and real life illustrations of the challenges facing practitioners. With analysis of each section, it provides essential guidance for students and sets standards for training and practice.

This edited book provides a hard-hitting and deliberately provocative overview of the relationship between evidence, policy and practice, how policy is implemented and how research can and should influence the policy process.

Anyone working, or planning to work, as an advocate for people dealing with public services will want to read this book. Based on the experience of advocates and using case studies based on real practice issues, the accessible style of "Speaking to power" will make it an enjoyable read for professionals, students and lay people alike.

Until now little published work has focused on how horticulture and gardening can help to promote social inclusion for vulnerable groups. This guide looks at the ways in which social and therapeutic horticulture projects can help foster independence, build self esteem and provide training and employment opportunities for vulnerable groups.

This book examines the relationship between health and domestic violence. In a qualitative study of the attitudes of health professionals and the women with whom they come into contact, it gives voice to a range of issues which urgently need to be addressed providing guidance for training and practice, as well as recommendations for policy makers.

This report presents critical new evidence on the size of the widening health gap. New geographical data are presented and displayed in striking graphical form. The widening gap should be read alongside Inequalities in health: The evidence presented to the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health (The Policy Press, 1999).

This book powerfully sets out the case for Transitional Safeguarding, a new approach to protection and safeguarding designed to address the needs and behaviours of young people aged 15-24 who are falling between gaps in current systems, with often devastating results.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Using case studies and a strengths-based approach Best puts forward a new recovery and reintegration model for substance users and offenders leaving prison which emphasizes the importance of long-term recovery and the role that communities and peers play in the process.