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Anti-social behaviour (ASB) was a major preoccupation of New Labour's project of social and political renewal, with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) a controversial addition to crime and disorder management powers. Thought by some to be a dangerous extension of the power to criminalise, by others as a vital dimension of local governance, there remains a concerning lack of evidence as to whether or not they compound social exclusion. This collection brings together opinion, commentary, research evidence, professional guidance, debate and critique in order to understand the phenomenon of anti-social behaviour. It considers the earliest available evidence in order to evaluate the British government's ASB strategy, debates contrasting definitions of ASB and examines policy and practice issues affected by it. Chapters ask what the recent history of ASB governance tells us about how the issue will develop to shape public and social policies in the years to come.

Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) have become the main sanction for dealing with anti-social behaviour in the United Kingdom. This book provides one of the first assessments of this sanction, which has become widely used but remains extremely controversial. The report is based on detailed interviews with ASBO recipients, practitioners and community representatives in areas affected by anti-social behaviour. Examining its use and impact from these various perspectives, the book assesses the effects of ASBOs on the behaviour and attitudes of recipients and analyses the various issues which arise in relation to their implementation.

At Home with Autism introduces readers to conditions and aspirations of adults on the autism spectrum that demand a new approach to how we provide, locate, design and develop homes in which they live. The book argues that there is no singular stellar residential model, just as there is no singular prototype of autism. Grounded in an extensive array of research sources, the book identifies resident-focused quality of life goals, and profiles design guidelines directed to those goals. The book implores those involved in housing design, production and policy to expand their exposure to what is possible, what is desirable, and to direct their efforts towards expanding residential choices for those on the spectrum.

This book examines local responses to political and economic crises in Germany and the UK. In Germany, the influx of refugees has thrown into question state capacity to cope with crisis and the acceptability of religious diversity. In the UK, policymakers have framed austerity measures as the most appropriate response to economic crisis, instigated initially by the financial crisis in 2007-8. However, in contrast to the far more visible, often rightwing, protests against the political establishment, local social activists have worked across different ethnic and religious groups to address social problems. The initiatives range from food banks to debt advice to helping some of the most vulnerable families and individuals overcome challenging life situations. Some are secular and others faith-based, though often, faith is related to individual motivation and possesses very little influence on the service itself. The emphasis instead is on collaborative activism, where organisations and individuals come to depend upon each other for mobilising resources and overcoming problems, an effort that in turn promotes trust and understanding across the diverse participants. This activism suggests new engagement with citizenship, which refers as much to participation in community-based, inclusive action to improve local quality of life as it does to individual rights. The volume brings together German and British academics to show how in both countries, concepts of individual, community, and citizenship are changing in an era of political and social division and persistent economic inequality.

Most current social welfare policies aim to ameliorate immediate problems or injustices, but they do little to foster human development or support the potential of people within marginalized communities. How can we more effectively use public policy to foster human development? How can we overcome the injustice of contemporary society and give people across the social and class spectrum equal opportunities to flourish? This book offers case studies and analyses of a number of different existing approaches to these questions, presenting newly conceptualised strategies for developing and implementing effective policies for fostering human development at the local, national, and international levels. It examines the discrepancies and obstacles that actual policies present to what a capability approach can do in social policy practice. The goal is to stimulate debate on how to overcome barriers in a variety of existing social policy scenarios.

This book provides descriptions and comparative analyses of the now complex and highly varied arrangements for the care of children, disabled and older people in Europe, set within the context of changing labour markets and welfare systems. It includes analyses of the modernisation of informal care and new forms of informal care, topics often neglected in the literature. Issues of gender, family change, social integration and citizenship are all explored in a series of chapters that report on original empirical, cross-national research. All contributors are high-ranking experts involved in the COST A13 Action Programme, funded by the European Union.

This collection focuses on the relationship between social care, community, and citizenship, linking them in a way relevant to both policy and practice. It explores key concepts, policies, issues, and relationships, and draws on contrasting illustrations from England and Scotland. The authors examine the ethics of care, exploring the theoretical and moral complexities for both those receiving and those delivering it. The book also incorporates practice-based chapters on anti-social behaviour, domestic violence, community capacity to care, black and minority ethnic care, volunteering, befriending, and home care, and provides international comparisons and perspectives, with chapters from Sweden, Germany, and Japan.

Recent social trends and policy developments have called into question the divide between the provision of income support and social care services. This book examines this in light of key trends. It presents new evidence on the links between cash – whether from earnings from paid work, social security benefits, and payments for disabled people and carers – and social disadvantage, care, and disability. The book also presents theoretical perspectives on the need for and provision of care, which some commentators have described as a ‘new social risk’, and offers new insights into traditional forms of risk, such as poverty, disability, access to credit, and money management. It provides an analysis of childcare and informal support for sick, disabled, or elderly people in the context of increasing female labour market participation and the introduction of cash allowances to pay for care, and posits a new look at both disabled people and older people in their roles as active citizens, whose views and experiences should help shape both policy and practice.

So often, the ills of society are blamed on negligent parenting, leading to the development of social service policies built around the concept of early intervention. Interrogating this concept, this book explores the history of our understanding of children, family, and parenting, and its implications for society. With a particular focus on the intersection of brain science and social policy, the authors challenge our long-held consensus on early intervention. Accessibly written and highly topical, this book is a comprehensive and critical assay of our contemporary belief that so-called bad parents raise substandard future citizens unfit for the new capitalism.

Numerous books have been written about Victorian child-care pioneers, but few biographical studies have been published about more recent child-care and welfare pioneers. This book looks at the lives of six inspirational individuals who have made significant contributions to the well being of disadvantaged children over the course of the twentieth century. Each of the six discussed – Eleanor Rathbone, Marjory Allen, Clare Winnicott, John Stroud, Barbara Kahan, and Peter Townsend – has been important in establishing present systems of ch ild care and child welfare, and in stimulating debate around issues that remain high on policy and practitioner agendas today.

There are, sadly, children whose lives are severely blighted by abuse, by neglect and by separation from their parents. Ways have been devised to protect and care for them. Some have been encouragingly enlightened while others have been deeply misguided. These essays describe and explain the significant political, economic, legal and ideological factors that have shaped this history from the mid-1850s up to the present day. In this, as much emphasis has been given to accounting for the unchanging nature of certain problems, issues and assumptions as to what has changed: hence the title. However, the essays look forward as well as looking back and in doing so endeavour to discern the likely pattern of future developments in the nature and scale of the problems with which the children’s services grapple and in the policies to which they give rise. Two key questions follow. How far will such policies be informed by well-founded evidence and how far by uninformed political conviction or by the legacies of the past? And will there be the necessary skill, commitment and compassion for the lives of our most vulnerable children to be enhanced, not least by forestalling the ills that are liable to befall them?

The general well-being of British adolescents has been the topic of considerable debate in recent years, but too often this is based on myth rather than fact. Are today's young people more stressed, anxious, distressed or antisocial than they used to be? What does research evidence tell us about the adolescent experience today and how it has changed over time? And how do trends in adolescent well-being since the 1970s relate to changes in education, leisure, communities and family life in that time? This unique volume brings together the main findings from the Nuffield Foundation's Changing Adolescence Programme and explores how social change may affect young people's behaviour, mental health and transitions toward adulthood. As well as critiquing research evidence, which will be of interest to a wide academic audience, the book will inform the wider debate on this subject among policy makers and service providers, voluntary organisations and campaign groups

There have been major shifts in the framework of social policy and welfare across Europe. Adopting a multi-level, comparative, and interdisciplinary approach, this book develops a critical analysis of policy change and welfare reform in Europe. It applies a dynamic and change-oriented perspective to shed light on policy changes that are often poorly understood in the welfare literature, and contributes to a further development of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks for understanding social change. Using citizenship as a focus, several dimensions of change are analysed simultaneously: changes in the discipline of social policy itself; the changing character of social problems; changes in social policy and citizenship; and the emergence of new forms of social integration. The book also speculates on how different dimensions of change are interlinked.

Health and social care professionals are constantly exhorted to work collaboratively. This book reports on research which examines inter-professional work with families in which mothers have a mental health problem and where there are also concerns about child protection. Breakdowns in inter-professional collaboration, issues of risk and relevant resources are all addressed. Mothers' views and experiences are contrasted with professional perspectives. The book reports on a survey of 500 practitioners working in health, social services and the voluntary sector, presents data from in-depth interviews with mothers with severe mental health problems, identifies weaknesses in inter-professional coordination in this area of work, and suggests a new model for work with families where mental health problems and child protection concerns co-exist.

Most slave trades were abolished during the nineteenth century, yet there remain millions of people in slavery today, amongst them approximately 210 million children in slavery, trafficked, debt bondage, and other forms of forced labour. This book, drawing on experience worldwide, focuses on child slavery and shows how children remain locked in slavery, the ways in which they are exploited, and how they can be emancipated. It examines child labour, child trafficking, and child exploitation in various countries such as Nepal, Turkey, Uganda, South and Southeast Asia, India, Central America, and the United Kingdom.

The viability, quality and sustainability of publicly supported early childhood education and care services is a lively issue in many countries, especially since the rights of the child imply equal access to provision for all young children. But equitable provision within childcare markets is highly problematic, as parents pay for what they can afford and parental income inequalities persist or widen. This book presents recent, significant research from eight nations where childcare markets are the norm. It also includes research about ‘raw’ and ‘emerging’ childcare markets operating with a minimum of government intervention, mostly in low income countries or post transition economies. Childcare markets compares these childcare marketisation and regulatory processes and the format of any public investment across the political and economic systems in which they are embedded. Contributions from economists, childcare policy specialists and educationalists address the question of what constraints need to be in place if childcare markets are to deliver an equitable service. Evidence is presented that marketisation and privatisation, including corporatisation, risk deepening, consolidating or widening inequalities of access to early childhood education and care provision and driving qualitative differences between types of provider. The book documents the varied economic and policy backdrops of current childcare market systems, examines their consequences for parents, children, providers and the systems themselves, and finally explores alternative approaches.

Over the last decade, the reformed youth justice system has seen increases in the numbers of children and young people in custody, a sharp rise in indeterminate sentences and the continuing deaths of young prisoners. The largest proportion of funding in youth justice at the national level is spent on providing places for children and young people remanded and sentenced to custody. The publication of the Youth Crime Action Plan during 2008 and the increasing emphasis on early intervention provides a framework to consider again the interface between local services and secure residential placements. This report brings together contributions from leading experts on young people and criminal justice to critically examine current policy and practice. There are vital questions for both policy and practice on whether the use of custody reduces re-offending or whether other forms of residential placements are more effective long-term. The report looks at current approaches to the sentencing and custody of children and young people, prevention of re-offending and a range of alternative regimes.

Little is known about the experiences of children living in families affected by severe and enduring mental illness. This book provides an in-depth study of children and young people caring for parents affected in this way. Drawing on primary research data collected from forty families, this book presents the perspectives of children (young carers), their parents and the key professionals in contact with them. The book contributes to the growing evidence base on parental mental illness and outcomes for children. It examines the experiences and needs of children caring for parents with severe mental illness, provides the perspectives of children, parents and key professionals in contact with these families, reviews existing medical, social, child protection and young carers' literatures on parental mental illness and consequences for children, provides a chronology and guide to relevant law and policy affecting young carers and parents with severe mental illness, makes concrete recommendations and suggestions for improving policy and professional practice and contributes to the growing evidence base on parental mental illness and outcomes for children and families.

Many policy and practice initiatives that aim to prevent social exclusion focus on children and young people. This book considers new approaches to understanding the complexities of prevention, and how these new understandings can inform policy and practice. Preventative initiatives such as the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund (NECF) have supported large-scale complex evaluations that have generated rich and important data about strategies for addressing social exclusion and what they can achieve. The book uses evidence from the NECF to illustrate and explore the experiences of children and families who are most marginalised. It examines the historical context of approaches to child welfare, and presents a new framework for understanding and developing preventative polices and practice within the context of social exclusion.

As internet use is extending to younger children, there is an increasing need for research focusing on the risks young users are experiencing, as well as the opportunities, and how they should cope. With expert contributions from diverse disciplines and a uniquely cross-national breadth, this timely book examines the prospect of enhanced opportunities for learning, creativity and communication set against the fear of cyberbullying, pornography and invaded privacy by both strangers and peers. Based on an impressive in-depth survey of 25,000 children carried out by the EU Kids Online network, it offers wholly new findings that extend previous research and counter both the optimistic and the pessimistic hype. It argues that, in the main, children are gaining the digital skills, coping strategies and social support they need to navigate this fast-changing terrain. But it also identifies the struggles they encounter, pinpointing those for whom harm can follow from risky online encounters. Each chapter presents new findings and analyses to inform both researchers and students in the social sciences and policymakers in government, industry or child welfare who are working to enhance children's digital experiences.