Summary
Contents
Subject index
Social policy is central to social work practice. This textbook is designed to help students, practitioners and academics think critically about the relationship between policy and practice; particularly in how policy both structures and informs practice. Reflective questions help critical thinking and links to websites of substantive information across the UK and internationally help keep you up-to-date with policy developments. The authors’ experience and skills in working with different service user groups combine to provide a constructive and critical approach to working with social policy in an era of welfare retrenchment. Key topics include: discretion and practice; social work training and education; safeguarding children; responses to the needs of looked after children; personalization in adult care; ‘race’ and welfare policy; domestic violence; mental health and capacity; and comparing social work and social care internationally.
Introduction: Policy and Social Work
Introduction
An underlying theme of this book is a sense that the relationship between social policy and social work does not appear ‘out of the blue’ – it has a history, and this history has a continuing relationship with the way policy concerns are understood, the policy roles social work can take on, and social work’s evaluation of current policy for practice – positive, negative or at various critical points in-between.
In this introductory chapter, I want to provide an overview of the local history of social work and social policy as a way of exploring the interaction between the concerns and operation of social policy and the role and opportunities for social work practice. A sense ...
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