The student's companion to social policy

"This Student's Companion to Social Policy is a resource book that will be of practical use to students of social policy throughout their undergraduate or postgraduate study of the subject. It aims to acquaint them with the study of social policy by covering all the main themes and issues likely to be included in any curriculum in the UK, and indeed in many other countries. Readers are introduced to current theoretical and ideological debates, historical developments, service areas, key policy issues and the broader UK and international context in which social policy operates. Each chapter includes a short guide to further sources, which points to some of the literature that pursues the issues addressed in the chapter in more depth and also alerts readers to major web-based sources. The Companion will be of value to students studying social policy on its own, as part of another undergraduate or postgraduate programme (for instance, sociology, politics, applied social science or management studies) or as part of a professional course in a related field (for instance, social care work, nursing and health studies, public and civil society sector management or criminology). For this sixth edition of the Companion existing authors have updated their contributions; and in some cases previous authors have been replaced with others leading in research and teaching in those areas. As in the last edition we have asked contributors to provide readers with a short bullet point summary of key points at the beginning of each chapter and to conclude with some brief speculations on emerging issues. There has also been a change in the editorial team for this edition. Sharon Wright has taken on other responsibilities since the publication of the fifth edition and has been replaced as fourth editor by Vikki McCall. The current editors and the publisher would like to thank Sharon for all her work on previous editions. We are pleased that Vikki has been able to join us, and her role has meant that the editorial process has remained much the same for this latest edition."