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An understanding of social policy is vital for engaging practically with social work values, and dealing with political and ethical questions about responsibility, rights and our understanding of 'the good society'. This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to social policy, tailored to the needs of a social work audience.The new edition of this popular and accessible text analyses current policies and policy themes relevant to social work, and locates them in the context of fundamental social policy principles and debates. It discusses the nature of social policy and its relationship to social work, and covers essential themes such as: - service user participation and involvement - the balance between individual, societal and state responsibility for people's wellbeing - the interactions of the state, the private sector, voluntary organisations and the family - the relationships between needs, rights and choices - the purposes and challenges of professional social work - the meanings of 'equality', 'prevention' and 'personalisation'. Each chapter ends with activities for reflection and analysis, and suggestions for further reading. Social Work and Social Policy is invaluable for students undertaking social work qualifying courses, all of whom are required to demonstrate an understanding of the social policy contexts of practice

The European trend away from welfare statism and towards consumerism is usually regarded as a shift from social development to social delimitation. However, consumerism has the potential to promote procedural rights, to be responsive to individual needs and to treat service users as rational agents.

This paper discusses the deepening of the current capitalist crisis in practical/theoretical groundings; its overcoming is not simply a theoretical but a concrete question. While the US-capitalism becomes more aggressive, its theoretical apprehension has been historically suppressed and substituted by more unifying discourses. A new paradigm arises: political left and right have merged. The political programs of the last decades were caught off guarded and cannot offer concrete, satisfying answers to real, social demands. However, the reorganisation of the Left from within could open the possibility for real social transformation.

Social media can present difficult challenges for people working in the family courts, so how can practitioners use it securely?

This paper sets out the environment of inequality in which social work and the poor have recently operated. It explores pragmatic and idealist arguments concerning whether or not the poor need social work. Finally, policy solutions developed in consultation with social service users and carers are suggested in relation to poverty and social exclusion. Social exclusion can be linked to relative poverty as exclusion from economic and social norms. However, there is a wider brief in our own government's publications and those of Europe, of examining how people are excluded from actions and policies of agencies who are there to support them. This paper will retain the concepts of poverty as lack of material income, and inequality as the gap between the rich and the poor, while being aware of the policy implications for social service users and carers of the more comprehensive process of being shut out partially or fully from social, economic, political and cultural systems. The debates around social work, social exclusion and inequality that follow establish: that some of the poor do need social work; that the poverty of social service users is related to policies that have restructured welfare in Britain; that the reason for individuals approaching or being referred to social services are complex but are likely to include financial deprivation as a key contributory factor; that if the poor do need social work, advocacy is essential rather than social work being seen as concerned only with social control—taking children into care, mentally ill people into hospitals, and advising the DSS on the suitability of claimants for benefits. Finally, the discussion turns to new policy agendas on social exclusion instigated by the Labour government. What positive difference can such policies make for social service users, their carers and social workers?.

This paper develops from the marxist critique of social policy under capitalism a speculative picture of socialist social policy. It draws its ideas from:(a) socialist theory of the state, human nature, family life, and the relationship between need and resources(b) 'socialist' countries such as Russia and Cuba(c) struggles about welfare policies under capitalism.It attempts to answer a number of questions posed by the discipline of social administration about the nature of socialist social policy.

The sociology of social problems -- The sociology of social movements -- The sociology of power: economics, wealth, and politics -- Poverty -- Race, ethnicity, and immigration -- Gender and sexual orientation -- The family -- Education and media -- Health care and well-being -- Crime and criminal justice -- Globalization, technology, and global inequalities -- Population, urbanization, and aging -- The environment -- Drug abuse and human trafficking -- War, rebellion, and terrorism.

The article discusses the historical aspects of creating a global Internet. The number of websites of organizations or individuals on the Internet today has exceeded 600 billion. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the Internet has become a global social phenomenon as a result of economic globalization, and not the development of technology as a means of communication. All over the world, especially in countries with a high level of scientific and technological progress, it is easy to notice that people's interests have shifted from real to virtual reality, which consists of countless threads of cyberspace. The article also shows that extremist activity on the Internet has the following characteristics: justification of terrorism or terrorist activity; incitement to social, racial, national or religious instability; propaganda of racial, national or religious extremism; violation of rights based on race, nationality or religion. It is these dangers that should be excluded from the global network through the introduction of strict legislative measures of the state.