A valuable sourcebook for individuals interested in the tragedy of child abuse, Children and Adolescents in Need is a practical legal primer that looks at the complex and varied issues besetting child abuse. --Edelman Children's Court Newsletter, Monterey Park, California The vulnerability of children becomes tragically apparent when they are neglected and abused by those persons most intimately responsible for their well-being. When this occurs, and parents are judged incapable of adequately providing for the critical needs of a child, the responsibility for determining "best interest" falls to the community legal system. In some instances--even before birth--legal principles, statutes, and case law are shaping the decisions that will profoundly affect the lives of these young human beings. With compassion and practicality, Children and Adolescents in Need looks at the complex issues surrounding these decisions and discusses the challenges faced by people involved in providing the resources these special children need to anticipate a future with hope and confidence. The poignant clarity of Children and Adolescents in Need makes it an excellent sourcebook for mental health practitioners, volunteer child advocates, and students in clinical training. Case studies explore the effort required to coordinate multi-disciplinary services to achieve long term positive impact on the "whole" child.

Whether protecting their own rights or those of their clients, or navigating the juvenile justice, immigration, or welfare systems, social workers confront legal issues every day. This book explores legal concepts, legal reasoning, and legal processes -- illustrated with case vignettes from social work practice -- in order to provide social work practitioners and students with practical and accessible legal knowledge. It introduces readers to scholarship about the law and to conceptual knowledge that can be applied to any interaction with the legal system. Social workers are thereby enabled to "think like a lawyer" and increase their effectiveness. The volume features a discussion of recent reform movements, including Alternative Dispute Resolution, and an appendix of sources for legal information and research on the law.

Hit by the European financial and economic crisis in 2008, several Member States of the European Monetary Union (EMU) were unable to refinance their public debt through the financial markets. As a result, they asked for financial assistance from international institutions and European financial assistance mechanisms. That assistance often came at a high price for citizens, cuts in pensions and social assistance, and controversial reforms in public healthcare. These far-reaching reforms were, in many cases, experienced as violations of people's human rights. National constitutional courts, the Court of Justice of the EU, and the European Court of Human Rights issued a series of rulings on the conformity of the reforms in social protection initiated during the Eurozone crisis. This book offers a holistic analysis of the specific reforms in social protection introduced during the European financial crisis and their implications for constitutional law. Focusing on the social reforms of nine European countries that were greatly affected by the financial crisis, the volume seeks to address the legacy of the financial crisis on the application of constitutional law and the welfare state. The book will act as a helpful tool to legal academics interested in the challenges of constitutional and social law initiated by financial assistance conditionality, to advocates in quest of sound legal bases for the protection of individuals affected by social security reforms, and to national and international judges who are confronted with cases that question the legality and legitimacy of the crisis-related reforms.

Bringing together top scholars in the field, Universality and Social Policy in Canada provides an overview of the universality principle in social welfare. The contributors survey the many contested meanings of universality in relation to specific social programs, the field of social policy, and the modern welfare state. The book argues that while universality is a core value undergirding certain areas of state intervention-most notably health care and education-the contributory principle of social insurance and the selectivity principle of income assistance are also highly significant precepts in practice.

How do you apply the principles, structures and processes of the law to everyday practice? Drawing on a wealth of contemporary case examples, this handy pocket book demystifies the legislation on child protection and demonstrates the practical duties and responsibilities of professionals working within this complex area. Students taking Social Work qualifying undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Qualifies Social Workers fulfilling their learning development requirements. Students taking non-social work but related degrees, e.g. Community and Youth Work. 2nd / 3rd level students on qualifying Social Work courses (u/g and p/g).

What does the law require of social workers when deciding how to intervene to protect children and adults at risk? What social work standards should guide decisions about whether, when and how to invoke statutory powers and duties in practice? Making Good Decisions provides an accessible and practical guide to the legal rules and principles that should guide everyday social work practice. It sets out the key elements of administrative law, equality and human rights legislation which shape how social workers practise and illustrates how knowledge and use of legal principles can support core social work goals, including empowerment, equality and social justice. An invaluable reference point for all students and practitioners, this book will support and empower social workers to feel more confident in making and challenging decisions, more credible when presenting assessments and plans, and more creative when working with service users and carers. The text is supported by a range of innovative features and boxed information to aid learning and stimulate reflection: - Key Case Analysis boxes summarise the details of particular legal cases and outline the implications for social work practice. - Practice Focus boxes apply legal principles and processes to practice through the use of social work scenarios. - On-The-Spot Questions reinforce understanding and encourage critical reflection.

The safeguarding of vulnerable adults continues to increase in importance. Safeguarding Adults and the Law, now in its second edition, sets this complex area of work within an extensive legal framework and provides many useful pointers for practitioners and students. The book covers, for example, Department of Health guidelines, human rights, the regulation of health and social care providers, the barring of carers from working with vulnerable adults, care standards tribunal cases, mental capacity, undue influence, assault, battery, wilful neglect, ill treatment, self-neglect, manslaughter, murder, theft, fraud, sexual offences, data protection and the sharing of information. It focuses on how these areas of law apply to vulnerable adults, and uses the large body of case law to bring the law to life. Also covered is how local authorities and the NHS are implicated in causing harm - through abuse, neglect or omission - as exemplified by the independent and public inquiries into the catastrophic events at Stafford Hospital. This fully-updated second edition comprehensively reflects recent changes to the law, and includes many new case studies. It looks forward also to the implications, for safeguarding, of the draft Care and Support Bill 2012. This book will be an essential resource for all those working in community care, adult social work, health care and housing. Those working for local authorities, the NHS, voluntary organisations and students will find it to be essential reading.

This short guide cuts through the confusing mass of legislation to provide a concise and jargon-free explanation of current community care practice and the law. In clear and simple language, it explains the legislation directly relevant to practitioners, including: rules about how people in need get an assessment from local authorities; the assessment of need itself; eligibility for actually getting a service (and the "fair access to care" policy); charging for services; ordinary residence; topping up of care home fees; assessing informal carers; and the rules about asylum seekers. It provides an overview and analysis of high profile issues such as direct payments, personal budgets and the policy of personalisation and National Health Service provision, including the vexed issue of NHS continuing health care. It also highlights the duties placed on local authorities and the NHS, the various tensions underlying community care, and the consequent shortcuts - both lawful and unlawful - that local authorities and the NHS feel obliged to take. Quick Guide to Community Care Practice and the Law is an essential resource for busy practitioners at all levels as well as managers in both the statutory and voluntary sectors, policy-makers in local authorities and the NHS, advocates, lawyers and social work students.

The fourth edition of this popular text has been expanded to accommodate social workers' continuing need for a thorough grounding in the statutory framework of local authority practice and the wider legal context of social work in the statutory and voluntary sectors. The separate chapter on social work law in Scotland addresses continuing developments in relation to devolved government and new legislation. Since 1996, the pace of change has been remorseless. Part IV of the Family Law Act has been implemented; youth justice in England and Wales has been substantially reformed; the Human Rights Act 1998 impacts on areas of social work practice; and social security law has been significantly amended. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 will both radically reform the law relating to the adoption of children and significantly amend the Children Act 1989. All these important changes, central to social work practice, are addressed in detail.

The book discusses how labour law and welfare systems will be affected by the ongoing transformation of work. The first section considers demography from two different perspectives. On the one hand, it focuses on chronic diseases and their impact on work, emphasising the role and the regulation of welfare systems. On the other, attention is given to youth unemployment and to those forms of employment which might have an impact on young people. Section II touches upon the relationship between the environment and industrial relations, while the third part broaches the topic of the impact of technology in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. As such, this volume provides an exhaustive picture of the changes currently underway, considering all the aspects which will affect work now and in the future.

The idea that European welfare states are struggling to meet new social risks during a process of adaptation to a post-industrial setting has been an acknowledged theory in welfare state research for some time. The authors of this remarkable book have chosen to study a powerful indicator of how this trend might affect legal protection and access to justice for individuals: reforms in social security systems as they apply to cases of reduced earnings capacity. While previously the notion of social protection made welfare state inhabitants feel that the risk of loss of income due to physical or psychological hindrances was minimal, this sense of security can no longer be taken for granted. This book presents in-depth analyses, by nine leading scholars in social security law, of recent reforms in the field of incapacity benefits in four European countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The authors emphasize how recent reforms in the field of social security have been transformed into legal provisions, how the gate-keeping function is implemented in the legislation of the different countries, and to what extent the reforms have affected the legal position of the individuals concerned. They find that ever-tightening requirements designed to reduce benefit dependency, in combination with policies emphasizing individual responsibilities rather than individual rights, cause increased social risks for exposed groups. Among the specific aspects covered are the following: Measuring the reduction of earnings capacity; rights and obligations attached to reintegration into the labour market; work capability assessment procedures; 'rehabilitation chains' with fixed time limits; the real and increased risk of poverty faced by long-term incapacitated persons; constitutional concerns raised by increased dependency on means-tested benefits; conditionality of benefits on work-related activities, participation in training programmes, or active job searching; and sanctions that can be applied if the claimant fails to comply with activation measures. All the country chapters provide thorough surveys of recent reforms, as well as analyses of their different weaknesses and strengths. The European dimension is explored with particular reference to anti-discrimination legislation, health and safety law as well as the Open Method of Coordination. As a systematic analysis of the current reforms relating to reduced earnings capacity, this book will attract a wide readership among lawyers and policymakers for its thorough coverage of the current landscape and the far-reaching implications it suggests. The book's systematic comparative method sheds a bright light on the challenges faced by post-industrial European welfare states, and its crystallization of the legal strategies behind the individual legal measures and reforms deepens our understanding of the institutions of social security and our awareness of the rights and obligations of exposed individuals.

What international and European legal instruments protect the right to social security? What are the obligations which states have assumed under these instruments? How is their application monitored? What are the trends in national legislation in relation to the standards of the European Code of social security and its protocol, the main Council of Europe instruments in the social security field? Is social security considered as a human right and how has the case law of the European Court of Human Rights developed in this area? These are some of the key issues addressed in this publication, where the code and its protocol are viewed against the background of other standard-setting instruments, developments at national level and human rights.

The book offers a comprehensive overview of social security in the Balkan states. Social security is presented from a broad perspective as a mechanism that addresses human needs, provides protection against social risks, reduces social tensions and secures peace. Various sectors of social policy, pension systems, health care systems, disability insurance, labor policy as well as social risks, such as poverty and unemployment, have been analyzed from historical, economic, political, sociological and security perspective. The book also offers recommendations for improving the level of social security in the region. Contributors are: Maja Bacovic, Agata Domachowska, Dorota Domalewska, Tomasz Ferfecki, Afet Mamuti, Katerina Mitevska Petrusheva, Natalija Perisic, Kire Sharlamanov, Katerina Veljanovska Blazhevska, and Marzena Zakowska.

The "Welfare Reform Act 2009" received Royal Assent on 12 November 2009. This Act amends the law relating to social security and reforms the welfare and benefit system to improve support and incentives for people to move from benefits into work. It includes measures to increase personal responsibility within the welfare system. The Act will also provide more employment choices for people with disabilities. It confers regulation-making powers that can be used to give adult disabled people greater choice and control over the way in which relevant services are provided by relevant authorities. The Act also provides encouragement of parental responsibility by introducing a requirement for joint birth registration and by amending the law relating to child support.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the employment protection systems of many countries were affected by the strain of market forces and neo-liberal policies. This study compares developments in three countries with a social collectivist system of labour law and industrial relations, namely Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. A global account is also given of employment protection in the USA, Japan and Germany.