Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. "Health Action Zones," written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, examines their development and impact from a variety of perspectives.
It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which Health Action Zones were established and which greatly contributed to learning about health policy and practice development in the early part of the twenty-first century. As importantly, the book discusses enduring themes on topics such as building capacity for collaboration amongst diverse and unequal partners and developing the capacity to learn within complex policy systems. It assesses the successes of specific strategies aimed at improving health and reducing health inequalities.
"Health Action Zones" provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative that will be of great value to those concerned with building the evidence-base for future action. It also offers guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems.
The multidisciplinary nature of this text makes it suitable for a wide range of postgraduate courses including those covering issues in public health, community care, urban studies, social policy, health and social care research, local governance and public services.

Despite the widely held belief that the social services were allocated solely on the basis of client need, and could therefore be directly contrasted with the operation of the private market, in the 1970s there remained a wide range of services for which the consumer had to pay directly at the time of consumption. Consumer charges were widely used, for example, for residential accommodation, for the provision of day care and for domiciliary services. Originally published in 1980, Charging for Social Care provided a long overdue examination of the use of these charges in the personal social services. It analyses their historical origins, current operation and their social and financial significance. In addition, it provides a clear theoretical framework within which pricing policies should be determined and outlines the policy for pricing personal social services in the future. In undertaking this analysis Ken Judge and James Matthews had gone beyond the rhetoric which in the past had characterised discussions about charges. Their detailed and perceptive study was based on a report for the Department of Health and Social Security. It would still be of interest to students and teachers of social policy and social administration, to policy makers in both central and local government, to students of the economics of social policy and of the public sector, to social workers, and to all those with an interest in the personal social services and in public spending decisions.

Despite the widely held belief that the social services were allocated solely on the basis of client need, and could therefore be directly contrasted with the operation of the private market, in the 1970s there remained a wide range of services for which the consumer had to pay directly at the time of consumption. Consumer charges were widely used, for example, for residential accommodation, for the provision of day care and for domiciliary services. Originally published in 1980, Charging for Social Care provided a long overdue examination of the use of these charges in the personal social services. It analyses their historical origins, current operation and their social and financial significance. In addition, it provides a clear theoretical framework within which pricing policies should be determined and outlines the policy for pricing personal social services in the future. In undertaking this analysis Ken Judge and James Matthews had gone beyond the rhetoric which in the past had characterised discussions about charges. Their detailed and perceptive study was based on a report for the Department of Health and Social Security. It would still be of interest to students and teachers of social policy and social administration, to policy makers in both central and local government, to students of the economics of social policy and of the public sector, to social workers, and to all those with an interest in the personal social services and in public spending decisions.

This title was first published in 2000: Caring for Older People provides a unique insight into the world of community care in the 1990's. It presents findings from a national study of social care from the perspectives of older service users, their carers and care managers. Descriptive findings from this longitudinal study - conducted by the PSSRU from 1994 and funded by the Department of Health - are set in the context of the history of community care and developments since the passage of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. The study's findings highlight important challenges for policy and practice development in the new millennium.

Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. Written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, this book examines the initiative 's development and impact from a variety of perspectives. It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which HAZ were established and discusses enduring themes such as building and developing capacity with diverse and unequal partners within complex policy systems.

Multidisciplinary in nature, the book provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative, offering guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems.