Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
3,352
result(s) for
"Social service Great Britain."
Sort by:
Reclaiming social work : challenging neo-liberalism and promoting social justice
Reclaiming Social Work is a thought-provoking and innovative book which examines how social work′s commitment to social justice has been deepened and enriched by its contact with wider social movements. It explores the tensions between social work values and a market-driven agenda, and locates new resources of hope for the social work profession in the developing resistance to managerialism.
eBook
The short guide to social work
This introduction to social work takes readers through what it takes to be a social worker, the theories and policy and practice frameworks, as well as current issues facing social work practice today.
Book
The other invisible hand
How can we ensure high-quality public services such as health care and education? Governments spend huge amounts of public money on public services such as health, education, and social care, and yet the services that are actually delivered are often low quality, inefficiently run, unresponsive to their users, and inequitable in their distribution. In this book, Julian Le Grand argues that the best solution is to offer choice to users and to encourage competition among providers. Le Grand has just completed a period as policy advisor working within the British government at the highest levels, and from this he has gained evidence to support his earlier theoretical work and has experienced the political reality of putting public policy theory into practice. He examines four ways of delivering public services: trust; targets and performance management; \"voice\"; and choice and competition. He argues that, although all of these have their merits, in most situations policies that rely on extending choice and competition among providers have the most potential for delivering high-quality, efficient, responsive, and equitable services. But it is important that the relevant policies be appropriately designed, and this book provides a detailed discussion of the principal features that these policies should have in the context of health care and education. It concludes with a discussion of the politics of choice.
eBook
Reflecting on Social Work - Discipline and Profession
Social work has always been a contested activity and its status as an academic discipline remains uncertain. There is currently renewed interest in the theoretical and research dimensions of social work, at a time when significant changes in the broad social, political and economic context in which practice takes place require a re-evaluation of social work's role and a re-examination of its identity. This timely book brings together leading social work academics to examine the state of social work at the beginning of the 21st century. With their focus on the relationships between research, theory and practice, they reflect critically on the nature of social work as a discipline in higher education and the importance of this to the profession as a whole. The book represents an exploratory conversation among social work academics about the current state and future aspirations of the discipline and the profession. It aims to stimulate wider debate about the dominant constraints and opportunities for social work in the 21st century.
Contents: Introduction, Jackie Powell, Robin Lovelock and Karen Lyons; Social work, the public sphere and civil society, Bill Jordan and Nigel Parton; The McDonaldization of social work - or 'Come back Florence Hollis, all is (or should be) forgiven', Adrian L. James; The politics of social work research, Ian Butler and Richard Pugh; Gender and knowledge in social work, Karen Lyons and Imogen Taylor; Social work research and the partnership agenda, Steve Trevillion; Taking sides: social work research as a moral and political activity, Beth Humphries; Qualitative research and social work: the methodological repertoire in a practice-oriented discipline, Nick Gould; Research as an element in social work's ongoing search for identity, Walter Lorenz; 'Knowing how to go on': towards situated practice and emergent theory in social work, Jeremy Kearney; Habermas/Foucault for social work: practices of critical reflection, Robin Lovelock and Jackie Powell; Index.
Robin Lovelock is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, UK, Karen Lyons at the London Metropolitan University, UK and Jackie Powell is a Reader in Social Work Studies at the University of Southampton, UK.
eBook
Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work
Social Theory, Social Change and Social Work has two inter-related themes. First to account for and analyse current changes in social work and secondly, to assess how far recent developments in social theory can contribute to their interpretation. Representing the work of a range of academics all involved in research and teaching in relation to social work, it considers issues of central significance to everyone interested in the theory, policy, and practice of social work.
eBook
Partners for Good
After a century in which charities suspected the motives of cynical business people, and business people dismissed the contributions of amateur volunteers, the two sectors are coming together today as never before. The third sector has increased its business capacity through the experience gained from a decade of providing commissioned services to the public sector. Society today expects employers to do more to engage with both communities and good causes and the business case for doing so can be and is being made. But business also realises that charities do conscience better than they can and so co-working is increasingly being sought. In Partners for Good, Tom Levitt points the way to successful partnerships at local, national and international levels. There is now even an agreed international standard on what constitutes the social responsibility obligations of organisations operating in all sectors, in all parts of the world, over and above international legal frameworks. Sustainability today refers to the triple bottom line (financial, social, environmental) rather than being a green concept alone. On the down side, grants and other funding opportunities provided by governments to the third sector over the last ten years are suddenly ending and support structures are disappearing. The incentives for forging successful and sustainable win:win partnerships between businesses and charities in the new Big Society are therefore high, however demanding the time scale on offer.
eBook