Understanding social policy can be a daunting task. This book guides students and trainees through the subject, making complex ideas easy to digest. Packed with updated questions, tasks and resource lists, it provides important material on major new areas of debate, including pension provision and rising NHS costs.

Praise for the second edition:

'Superb updated edition. You cannot study social policy without reading this.'- Lynne Brown, Belfast Institute of Higher and Further Education, UK

 
'Provides a succinct overview of both the historical and current developments in major areas of social policy. Easy to read, provides useful questions for students' focus.' - Surinder Guru, University of Birmingham, UK

 
'Even better than the previous edition. Thoroughly updated, it covers a lot of ground without drowning students, opening up a range of issues for them to discuss and interpolate.' - Margaret May, London Metropolitan University, UK

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
The Development of Social Policy
PART TWO: WELFARE SERVICES
Social Security
Education
Health
Housing
Social Services
Employment
PART THREE: STRUCTURE
The State
The Market
The Voluntary Sector
Informal Welfare
PART FOUR: CONTEXT
Ideologies of Welfare
Economic Development
International and European Influences
Devolution and Local Control
PART FIVE: ISSUES
Social Divisions
Paying for Welfare
Delivering Welfare
The Future of Social Policy

PETE ALCOCK is Professor of Social Policy and Administration and Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of Understanding Poverty 3e (2006) and co-editor of the The Blackwell Companion to Social Policy, The Blackwell Dictionary of Social Policy and International Social Policy. He is past chair of the Social Policy Association and the Journal of Social Policy.