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Critical Perspectives on Children’s Services Reform
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Over the last decade there has been a series of Government policy initiatives in respect of children’s services and social work education in England, many of which aim to de-regulate or privatise aspects of these services. Critically considering the impact of the MacAlister Review, this book explores the past, present and future of children’s services in the UK from a range of perspectives – lived, professional and academic.

This accessible guide provides a timely and incisive overview of the current children’s services reform agenda in the UK. It identifies current challenges, analyses both strengths and weaknesses in the current policy agenda and sets out alternative policy and practice directions for a system that can meet families’ needs.

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Flexible Boundaries
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EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made unpaid care more visible through its absence, while also increasing the need for it.

Drawing on a range of research projects covering Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this book documents a broad spectrum of unpaid work performed by residents, relatives, volunteers and staff in nursing homes.

It demonstrates how boundaries between paid and unpaid work are flexible, varying considerably with conditions, time, place and intersectional populations.

By examining the complex labour process within nursing homes, this book provides insight and understanding which will be critical in planning for nursing home care post-pandemic.

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Psychosocial Experiences

This book presents a poignant and sensitive account of the challenges faced by adult children when making difficult decisions about care for and with their ageing parents in later life.

It offers new insights into the practical, emotional and physical effects that witnessing the ageing and death of parents has on those in late midlife and how these relationships are negotiated during this phase of the life course.

The author uses a psychosocial approach to understand the complexity of the experience of having a parent transition to care and the ambiguous feelings that these decisions evoke.

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With a foreword by First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, this book is the first to offer an in-depth look into what makes the Welsh Social Work context unique. It includes the move towards joint children, families and adult provision and the emphasis on early intervention, future generations and partnership considerations.

Covering the subject knowledge required by the Welsh regulator, Social Care Wales, it provides essential reading for students and practising social workers in Wales, and rich contextual analysis for other international social work practitioners and writers. Each chapter includes:

  • dialogue on the distinctive ‘Welsh Way’ that underpins the nation’s social work approach;

  • focus on application: responses and implications for professional practice;

  • the ‘giving of voice’ section: demonstrating the key emphasis in Welsh practice of ensuring that multiple stakeholder perspectives are actively heard;

  • key resources for further independent exploration of the topics.

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Rights, Resources and Relationships
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This book examines policies on unpaid care throughout the UK since the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. It questions why, after decades of policies and strategies, unpaid care remains in a marginal position in the social care system and in society more broadly, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It provides critical analysis of key policies and professional practice over three decades and highlights the continuing challenges faced by people in caring relationships, as well as reflecting on developments in the position of unpaid carers in the system of social care.

By questioning why this crucially important sphere of human life remains under-resourced, it sheds light on the ways in which care is understood and how policy makers and service providers perceive the need for support.

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This textbook offers students and practitioners an accessible introduction to strengths-based approaches in Social Work and Social Care practice. Covering the theory and research in support of these approaches, and packed full of case studies, the book will allow readers to develop a critical understanding of how strengths-based approaches work, and how they can be successfully applied in order to improve outcomes for people with lived experience.

Covering the five main models of strengths-based practice, the text presents international research and evidence on the efficacy of each approach, enabling students and practitioners to apply the benefits in their own social work practice. The guide features the perspectives of people with lived experience throughout and includes the following key learning features:

  • case studies of best practice;

  • points for practice: succinct tips for practitioners and students on practice placement;

  • further reading list and resources;

  • glossary.

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An International Comparison

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Technology is quickly becoming an integral part of care systems across the world and is frequently cited in policy discourse as pivotal for solving the ‘crisis’ in care and delivering positive outcomes.

Exploring the role of technology in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, this book examines how technology contributes effectively to the sustainability of these different care systems which are facing similar emergent pressures, including increased longevity, falling fertility and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It considers the challenges and opportunities of embedding technologies in care systems and the subsequent outcomes for older and disabled service users, carers and the care workforce.

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Between Two Paradigms

Two decades have passed since the devolution of social care policy, with key differences emerging between the UK’s four systems, but what impact have these differences had? This book presents for the first time research on the perspectives of social care policy makers on the four systems in which they operate and the ways in which they borrow from one another.

Drawing on extensive interviews with national and local policy makers across the UK, the book raises vital questions about the role of ‘standardisation’ and ‘differentiation’ in social care, concluding that when given equal capacity to reform their respective systems, the regimes in each nation may take radically different shapes.

Chapter 4 and chapter 7 are available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

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International Perspectives and Future Directions

Our societies are ageing, and we need to identify sustainable and person-centred solutions for supporting frail older people in their homes.

Reablement offers a radical new integrated care approach which supports older people to regain and maintain functioning and independence. This interdisciplinary book provides an introduction to the remarkable if haphazard international growth in reablement policies and practices in aged care over the past twenty years.

Incorporating theoretical and empirical research, it considers benefits for clients and care workers, cost-saving potentials and reablement provision also for persons with dementia. Finally, the book reflects on key findings, challenges and the way forward for long-term care for older people.

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A New Road to Reform

What lies behind England’s crisis in adult social care, why has real change been so hard and what can be done?

Ensuring effective, sustainable and affordable care and support for people of all ages is an urgent public policy challenge. This vital book outlines a different vision of social care as an essential part of the country’s economic and social infrastructure that enables people to live good lives.

Drawing on the history of social care, international comparisons and lived experience, it sets out a different road to reform that will secure political traction and public support for change.

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