Social Policy Association

The professional association for lecturers, researchers and students of social policy in the UK and internationally

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50th Anniversary Blog Series

2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the SPA. To celebrate this milestone we commissioned 50 blog posts from leading experts in the field, edited by Kevin Farnsworth and Zoe Irving. You can read all 50 of these posts below.
 
“Social policy matters. Rigorous, independent, robust study of it matters, as does teaching the next generation to be more policy-literate. At 50 the SPA is as important to all of these as ever, helping to develop, integrate and safeguard the subject and its members and contribute to better social policies.”
(50 words to mark 50 years, Adrian Sinfield)
Child labour is just one of the forms that modern slavery takes.

No 20: Slavery never went away: how social policy can help eradicate this 21st century issue

March 5, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Gary Craig In 1966, when the Social Policy Association was being formed, if you had asked anyone on the street what they thought of […]

The UK's post-Brexit EU migration policy has failed to consider the lives of women migrants.

No 19: Does Brexit mean my exit? A lack of consideration for women migrants highlighted by Brexit-related uncertainty

February 26, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 1

by Eva Duda-Mikulin One of the major driving forces of Brexit is immigration. This blog tries to make sense of what the situation is for […]

No 18: History shows that more funding, not reorganisations, make the NHS better for us all

February 19, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Ian Greener 2018 marks the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the NHS. It’s also the fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 Green Paper that […]

Citizens need a robust social welfare state in order to thrive.

No 17: Citizens as social actors – how we should think of them and why it matters

February 12, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Graham Room Who now reads Titmuss, TH Marshall and Tawney? It was through their writings that many of us came to social policy in […]

While Britons fight for better social policies, social policy academics are losing their radical edge.

No 16: A ‘radical’ crisis for the subject of social policy?

February 5, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Robert M Page At first glance, the subject of social policy appears to be in good health. Beneath the surface, however, there are signs […]

The roll-out of Universal Credit means more people must rely on foodbanks to survive.

No 15: Universal Credit, means-testing and social security

January 29, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 2

by Jane Millar Fifty years ago, in 1967, means-testing was just a small part of our social security system. Supplementary Benefit had been introduced in […]

Policies and practices regarding malaria prevention are an area around which regional social policy in Africa has coalesced.

No 14: Regional social policy: an idea whose time has come

January 22, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Nicola Yeates For those of us in ‘Brexit Britain’, it is sometimes easy to forget that the planned withdrawal of the UK from the […]

British parliament is where the fruits of academic social policy should be found.

No 13: Beneficent expert or turbulent priest? The ambiguous role of the Social Policy academic

January 15, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Hartley Dean The role of the Social Policy academic has in several respects always been ambiguous. The object of her scholarship may variously be […]

An elderly couple symbolise the process of ageing.

No 12: The neglect of ageing

January 8, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Alan Walker Social policy has neglected ageing and, as a result, it has vacated what should have been a leading role in responding to […]

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No 11: Why welfare is a common good

January 3, 2018 S-P-A-Administrator 0

by Pete Alcock My summer reading this year included a new biography of Clement Attlee, leader of the post-war Labour administration generally credited with the […]

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Recent Posts

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  • SPA Members Appointed as Fellows to the Academy of Social Sciences
  • Digitising Social Protections: Exclusion and Barriers in Jordan’s ‘Takaful’ Programme
  • Building Britain? Labour’s First Year of Housing Reform
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