Fully revised and restructured, this fresh edition offers students and trainee social workers an incisive and authoritative introduction to the subject. As well as entirely new sections on theory and practice, the expert contributions which have shaped the companion’s leading reputation have been updated and now include innovative standalone essays on social work theory.

• Comprehensively reworked new edition comprising six substantive sections covering essential topics for trainee social workers – in effect, six books in one
• Includes an extensive introduction and chapters by leading experts on the focus and purpose of social work
• Provides a unified textbook for trainees and an invaluable professional reference volume
• Features a wealth of new material on theory and practice alongside detailed expositions of the social and psychological framework, stages in the human life cycle, and the objectives and core components of social work
• Each chapter lists five key points to remember, questions for discussion, and recommendations for further reading

Martin Davies is Emeritus Professor at the University of East Anglia, UK, where he taught the university's Social Work in Society course for 20 years. He came to UEA after a distinguished research career in the UK Home Offi ce and at Manchester University, where he taught criminology, research methods, and research applications. The founding director of UEA's graduate programme in Social Work, he has authored and edited 12 books, including the previous editions of this volume, as well as more than a hundred scholarly papers.