Drawing together a mix of internationally renown contributors, Social Policy Review 28 provides an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship. With specially commissioned reviews of pensions, health care, conditionality and housing this book examines important debates in the field. A themed section on personalised budgets examines the introduction and consequences of personalisation of funding from the perspectives of the UK, Australia and Norway and considers the impact of such funding on vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the homeless. Published in association with the SPA this comprehensive discussion and analysis of the current state of social policy will be of keen interest to academics and students.

Personalisation - the idea that public services should be tailored to the individual, with budgets devolved to the service user or frontline staff - is increasingly seen as the future of the welfare state. This book focuses on how personalisation evolved as a policy narrative and has mobilised such wide-ranging political support. It will be a valuable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in public policy and social policy and for researchers and practitioners working in related fields.

What size is 'just right' for a care provider? This book explores size as an independent variable in care services. Using interviews and surveys with 108 people using services and carers in 27 case-study organisations it focuses on the contribution micro-enterprise can make to the care sector.

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.

Shifts to independent delivery of health and social care services have led to increased numbers of micro-enterprises. Could these tiny organisations with just 5 or fewer employees be the best way of delivering cost-effective health and social care services in the context of decreased budgets and increased demands? What size is 'just right' for a care provider? This book explores size as an independent variable in care services, comparing outcomes and value for money across micro, small, medium and large organisations. Using interviews and surveys with 108 people using services and carers in 27 case-study organisations it focuses on the contribution micro-enterprises can make to the care sector.

This unique book brings together, for the first time, advocates and critics of the personalisation agenda in English social care services to debate key issues relating to personalisation. Perspectives from service users, practitioners, academics and policy commentators come together to give an account of the practicalities and controversies associated with the implementation of personalised approaches. The conclusion examines how to make sense of the divergent accounts presented, asking if there is a value-based approach to person-centred care that all sides share. Written in a lively and accessible way, practitioners, students, policy makers and academics in health and social care, social work, public policy and social policy will appreciate the interplay of rival arguments and the way that ambiguities in the care debate play out as policy ideas take programmatic form.

Personalisation - the idea that public services should be tailored to the individual, with budgets devolved to the service user or frontline staff - is increasingly seen as the future of the welfare state. This book focuses on how personalisation evolved as a policy narrative and has mobilised such wide-ranging political support. It will be a valuable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in public policy and social policy and for researchers and practitioners working in related fields.

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.

This book investigates the professional needs and training requirements of an ever-changing public service workforce in Australia and the United Kingdom. It explores the nature of future roles, the types of skills and competencies that will be required and how organisations might recruit, train and develop public servants for these roles. Leading international research - practitioners make recommendations for how local organisations can equip future public servants with the skills and professional capacities for these shifting professional demands, and the skillsets they will require. Drawing on ideas that have been developed in the Australian and UK context, the book delves into the major themes involved in re-imagining the public service workforce and the various forms of capacities and capabilities that this entails. It then explores delivery of this future vision, and its implications in terms of development, recruitment and strategy.