This book offers the most accessible and comprehensive review of UK and comparative social policy available for undergraduate students, written by a range of leading experts in the field and covering all the perspectives, debates, issues, and challenges in the theory and practice of social policy.

As well as a textbook for those at the beginning of their study of social policy, this book provides a personal reference for students to consult, revisit and refer to throughout their undergraduate programme, as well as at postgraduate level or at various stages of professional courses. The themed structure of the text will remain for the new edition. However, to enhance their saliency and value, the completely revised and updated individual chapters reflect current and likely developments in the discipline and meet the changing needs of students and tutors. In order to help facilitate this a new editor, Vikki McCall, has joined the editorial team.

Chapter-specific revisions and refocusing are designed to ensure full coverage of issues of growing interest in social policy, including digital welfare, welfare funding and the role of taxation, provisions for the self-employed, gig workers, the LGBT community, public attitudes to welfare, regional and inter-generational relations, wealth, and environmental concerns. Each chapter begins with a boxed 5-point summary overview and concludes with an ‘emerging issues’ section. The chapters also provide a guide to further sources (books, journals, websites, datasets, etc.) and problem-centred chapter review questions. These are designed to encourage students to reflect on, revisit and reconsider the issues raised as they learn about social policy.

Overall, the chapters are presented with clarity and consistency in terms of the overall aims and presentational style of the text. They have been revamped to reflect the policy implications of recent financial, political, social and health developments, including the UK general elections of 2015, 2017 and 2019, the advent of Brexit, and the coronavirus COVID-19.

Pete Alcock is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Administration at the University of Birmingham, UK. He retired in 2016 after teaching and researching in the field for over forty years, and his research covered the fields of poverty and anti-poverty policy, social security, and the role of the UK third sector. He was Head of the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham (2003-2008), Director of the Third Sector Research Centre (2008-2014), and Director of the University’s ESRC Doctoral Training Centre (2013-16). He is author and editor of a number of leading books on social policy including Why We Need Welfare: Collective Action for the Common Good, (2016), Social Policy in Britain (5th edition, with L. Gregory, due 2022), Welfare Theory and Development (2011), International Social Policy: Welfare Regimes in the Developed World (2nd edition, 2009), and Understanding Poverty (3rd edition, 2006). 

Tina Haux is Director of the Centre for Children and Families at The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in London, UK. She is author of The Impact of Social Policy Scholars (2017), and has served in the editorial board of the Journal of Social Policy (2015-2017) and Social Policy & Society (2011-2014). Her main research interests are family policy, welfare-to-work, social justice, evidence-based policy-making and, increasingly, longitudinal research methods.   

Vikki McCall is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Housing at the University of Stirling, UK. She is co-author of the book The Role of Today’s Museum (2020) with C. Gray, and has served on the editorial board of Social Policy & Society (2018-present) and the Social Policy Association Executive Committee (2018-present). Her research interests include housing, ageing, volunteers, devolution, poverty, inequality, gender, social problems, urban society, museums and the cultural sector.   

Margaret May is Honorary Research Fellow in Social Policy at the University of Birmingham, UK. With over thirty years of experience in teaching, examining  and researching in social policy, she has edited and co-authored a number of leading books in the field, including Social Policy in Britain (4th edition, 2014), The Blackwell Dictionary of Social Policy (2002) and co-edited and contributed to Taxation and Social Policy, with A Lymer and A Sinfield (due 2023). Her research interests include occupational and private welfare, employment policy, human resource management and taxation. 

Table of Contents:

Contributors     

Acknowledgements       

Introduction      

Part I Concepts and Approaches

1. What is Social Policy?            

Pete Alcock

1. Researching Social Policy     

Vikki McCall

1. Social Needs, Social Problems, Social Welfare and Well-being              

Nick Manning           

1. Equality, Rights and Social Justice     

Peter Taylor-Gooby

1. 5.       Human Rights and Equality

Deidre Flanigan and Alison Hosie

1. Efficiency, Equity and Choice              

Carol Propper

1. Citizenship 

Peter Dwyer

1. Changing Behaviour

Jessica Pyckett

Part II    Key Perspectives

1. Neo-liberalism         

Nick Ellison

1. The Conservative Tradition

Hugh Bochel

1. Social Democracy    

Robert M. Page

1. Socialist Perspectives            

Hartley Dean

1. Feminist Perspectives

Shona Hunter           

1. 14.   Social Movements

Louisa Parks

1. Post-Modernist Perspectives

Tony Fitzpatrick

Part III Historical Context

1.  Nineteenth Century Beginnings

Bernard Harris

1. The Liberal Era and the Growth of State Welfare

Noel Whiteside

1. The Modern Welfare State, 1940-74

Robert M. Page

1. Crisis, Retrenchment and the Impact of Neo-Liberalism,1976-97

Howard Glennerster

1. 20.   Modernisation and the Third Way, 1997-2010

Martin Powell

1. 21.    Austerity Politics and Beyond

Jay Wiggan

Part IV Devolution and Social Policy in the United Kingdom

1. Social Policy and Devolution

Richard Parry

1. Social Policy in Northern Ireland

Ann Marie Gray and Derek Birrell

1. Social Policy in Scotland

Linda Poole

1. Social Policy in Wales

Paul Chaney

Part V Contemporary Context and Challenges

1. The Sustainability Challenge

Tony Fitzpatrick

1. The Demographic Challenge

Jane Falkingham and Athina Vlachantoni

1. The Economic Context

Kevin Farnsworth and Zoe Irving

1. The Role of Religion

Rana Jawed

1. Divisions and Difference

Sharon Wright

1. ‘Race’, Minority Ethnic Groups and Social Welfare

Lucinda Platt

1. Poverty and Social Exclusion

Daniel Edmiston

1. The Distribution of Welfare

John Hills

Part VI Welfare Production and Provision

1. State Welfare           

Catherine Bochel

1. Paying for Welfare  

Howard Glennerster

1. Taxation and Welfare

Sally Ruane/+ Michael Collins

1. Commercial Welfare              

Christopher Holden

1. Occupational Welfare

Edward Brunsdon and Margaret May

1. Civil Society Organisations and Welfare         

Rob Macmillan

1. Informal Welfare     

Linda Pickard

1. Welfare Users and Social Policy

Catherine Needham

Part VII Welfare Governance

1. The Policy Process  

Hugh Bochel

1. Managing and Delivering Welfare    

Ian Greener

1. Accountability for Welfare

Jackie Gulland

1. Regional and Local Governance

Guy Daly and Howard Davis

Part VIII Welfare Domains          

1. Income Maintenance and Social Security      

Stephen McKay and Karen Rowlingson

1. Employment

Adam Whitworth and Eleanor Carter

1. Health Care

Rob Baggott

1. Public Health

Rob Baggott

1. Education in Schools              

Anne West

1. Lifelong Learning and Training

Clare Callender

1. Housing       

David Mullins

1. Social Care 

Jon Glasby

1. Criminal Justice

Tim Newburn

Part IX Experiencing Welfare    

1. 55.   Experiences of Out-of -Work Benefit Receipt

Ruth Patrick

1. Family Policy             

Tina Haux

1. Children      

Tess Ridge

1. Young People

Bob Coles and Aniela Wenham

1. Older People            

Kate Hamblin            

1. Disability     

Mark Priestley

1. Migrants and Asylum Seekers

Majella Kilkey

Part X International and Comparative Context

1.  Comparative Analysis

Margaret May

1. Policy Learning and Transfer

John Hudson

1. The European Union and Social Policy            

Linda Hantrais

1. Social Policy in Europe

Jochen Clasen and Daniel Clegg

1.  Social Policy in the United States

Phillip M Singer and Scott L. Greer

1. Social Policy in East Asia

Misa Isuhara

1. Social Policy in the BRICS countries

Rebecca Surrender

1. Social Policy in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Rana Jawad

1. Social Policy in Less Developed Societies

Patricia Kennett

1.  Globalisation, International Organisations and Social Policy

Nicola Yeates