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A wide range of contributors focus on major issues in ageing such as autonomy, agency, frailty, lifestyle, social isolation, dementia and professional challenges in social work and participatory research.

This much needed book analyses public inquiries and serious case reviews to reveal the dynamics of hostility and aggression which contribute to the failure to protect children.

Interest in the contribution narrative can make across many disciplines has been booming in recent years, but its impact in social work has been limited. It has mainly been used in therapeutic intervention such as narrative therapy, social work education or personal accounts. This is the first book to extend the narrative lens to explore the contribution of narrative to social work values and ethics, social policy and our understanding of the self in social, cultural and political context. The book firstly sets out theoretical concerns and then applies them to specific areas of social work, including child protection, mental health and disability. The author argues that narrative is a richly textured approach to social work that can enhance both theory and practice. As such the book will be of interest to social work students, practitioners and educators, policy makers and those interested in the application of narrative to professional practice.

The book focuses on an often neglected key condition, that sustainable and accountable personal relationships are a precondition for health and well-being, and argues that there are always opportunities to deepen the quality, and range, of the client's connections with their current and future significant-others.

While much has been written about the problematic behaviour of young people and their families, there has been silence on the problem of young people behaving abusively towards their parents, which may take the form of physical, economic and/or emotional abuse. This is the first academic book to focus on adolescent-to-parent abuse and brings together international research and practice literature and combines it with original research to identify and critique current understandings in research, policy and practice. It discusses what we know about parents' experiences of adolescent-to-parent abuse and critically examines how it has been explained from psychological, sociological and sociocultural perspectives. It also outlines how policymakers and practitioners can usefully respond to the problem. This unique book adopts a range of theoretical and practice perspectives. Written in an accessible style, it is an essential tool for academics, policymakers and professionals with an interest in domestic violence, child protection and youth offending.

This topical book examines and debates a range of themes facing Gypsies and Travellers in British Society, including health, social policy, employment and education.

In this unique book, Paul Michael Garrett seeks to bring the profession into the orbit of the anti-capitalist movement and encourages a new engagement with theorists, rarely explored in social work, such as Antonio Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu and Nancy Fraser.

This book is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between social exclusion, poverty and the labour market. It challenges long-standing and dominant myths about 'the workless' and 'the poor', by exploring close-up the lived realities of life in low-pay, no-pay Britain.

Adult social care has emerged as a distinct policy area in the UK and one which has come under increasing scrutiny by government and other bodies. With the expectation that in future many more adults will need care and support, ideas have emerged about a 'transformation' of adult social care. The focus of this wide-ranging book is on the major themes in policy and provision including personalisation, integration, user participation, the cost of long term care, risk and safeguarding, care quality and workforce issues and is one of the first texts to deal with adult social care as a distinct entity and is an up-to-date source on contemporary government policies, debates and research.The book encourages readers to think critically about decisions being made and about the direction of future policy. The accessible book will be a valuable resource for undergraduate students in Social Policy, Health and Social Care, and Social Work, those taking advanced vocational qualifications in social care and practitioners.

"The squeezed middle" brings together leading experts from both sides of the Atlantic to ask what the UK can learn from the US experience of stagnating wages and rising living costs.

Health inequalities are the most important inequalities of all. In the US and the UK these inequalities have now reached an extent not seen for over a century. Most people's health is much better now than then, but the gaps in life expectancy between regions, between cities, and between neighbourhoods within cities now surpass the worst measures over the last hundred years. In almost all other affluent countries, inequalities in health are lower and people live longer. In his new book, academic and writer Danny Dorling describes the current extent of inequalities in health as the scandal of our times. He provides nine new chapters and updates a wide selection of his highly influential writings on health, including international-peer reviewed studies, annotated lectures, newspaper articles, and interview transcripts, to create an accessible collection that is both contemporary and authoritative. As a whole the book shows conclusively that inequalities in health are the scandal of our times in the most unequal of rich nations and calls for immediate action to reduce these inequalities in the near future.

Understanding the dynamics of population turnover or migration driving area change is key to improving efforts at neighbourhood regeneration and developing mixed or sustainable communities. This report provides the first analysis of neighbourhood migration flows for the whole of England and Scotland. A free pdf is available at www.jrf.org.uk

Although South Asian women are one of the most socially excluded groups in the UK, their numbers at university have increased rapidly in recent years. This report seeks to understand why they are entering university in larger numbers and the impact this has on their lives.

The welfare of ethnic minority individuals in Britain depends critically on how they fare in the labour market. This report provides a detailed empirical analysis of labour market outcomes and explores how ethnically diverse these outcomes are and how they have changed over time. A free pdf version is available at www.jrf.org.uk

This report covers developments in 20 less popular and more problematic council estates, based on four waves of research since 1980. It presents unique evidence of the impact of 25 years of social change and policy from Thatcher to Blair, a period in which the number of British council homes halved. A free pdf is available at www.jrf.org.uk

This book's striking message is that palliative care does not deliver on its aims to value people who are dying and make death and dying a natural part of life. Applying Social Role Valorisation, it argues for the de-institutionalisation of palliative care and recommends an alternative framework to current approaches.

"Disadvantaged by where you live?" offers a major contribution to academic debates on the neighbourhood both as a sphere of governance and as a point of public service delivery under New Labour since 1997.

This study examines the relationship between poverty and informal work. Exploring the experiences of people in low-paid informal work, it contends that unless government seeks to include the informal economy in its strategies, it will never be able to reach its employment or anti-poverty targets. Free pdf version available at www.jrf.org.uk

The UK child poverty rate for large families is among the highest in the OECD. This study investigates the prevalence and characteristics of poor children in large families in the UK and how we compare with other countries. FREE pdf version available online at www.jrf.org.uk

Much of the recent policy debate surrounding poverty in Britain focuses on income as a measure of living standards. In this report we consider one alternative to income for measuring poverty that has been largely overlooked in the mainstream poverty debate in the UK: namely household expenditure. Free PDF version available at www.jrf.org.uk

This lively, colourful and innovative pack presents ten reports on key issues affecting life in Britain, showing key patterns and inequalities in education, housing, health, family and work as revealed by the 2001 Census, and accompanied by a summary sheet, posters and background information.

How a neighbourhood is viewed can affect the lives of those who live there and the attitudes and behaviour of others towards them. This report examines the increasing use and sophistication of Internet-Based Neighbourhood Information Systems and considers their potential impact on how neighbourhoods are viewed. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk

Economic and social change is accelerating under the twin impact of globalisation and the new information technologies. This book addresses questions of change with particular reference to the European Union, which has made the development of a socially cohesive, knowledge-based economy its central task for the present decade.

The poor pay more for many things but, arguably, it is the extra they pay for credit that puts the greatest strain on their budgets. This report looks beyond the rhetoric that has dominated much of the debate on high-cost credit to examine the scope for widening access to more affordable credit. FREE pdf version available online at www.jrf.org.uk

This highly topical report provides much needed evidence to inform the re-configuration of services for children and young people. Focusing on the Connexions strategy and service in England, it explores the effectiveness of inter-agency working in this area. FREE pdf version available online at www.jrf.org.uk

This report uses a revolutionary new research tool, LOIS (the Lifetime Opportunity and Incentives Simulation programme), to assess the impact of current government social policy on our lives from cradle to grave. FREE pdf version available online at www.jrf.org.uk

This is a study of the longer-term transitions of young people living in neighbourhoods beset by the worst problems of social exclusion. Based on a rare example of longitudinal, qualitative research with 'hard-to-reach' young adults, the study throws into question common approaches to tackling social exclusion. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk

This book provides an overview and comparative analyses of the arrangements for the care of children, disabled and older people in Europe, within the context of changing labour markets and welfare systems. Gender, family change, social integration and citizenship are all explored in a report based on original empirical, cross-national research.

Community participation is now demanded of virtually all public sector services and programmes. This handbook provides practitioners, community activists, regeneration managers, teachers and academics with the tools needed to ensure that it is effective.

Any attempt by governments to stem the tide of early retirement will need to focus as much on employers' management of human resources as on the impacts of social policy. This report focuses on this previously neglected area: employers' policies and practice as a dynamic force in retirement decisions.