Social work and social care vacancies in England have partly been filled by international labour migration. Some staff are recruited from their home countries; others are recruited post arrival in the UK. The business of recruitment is often undertaken by commercial employment agencies; however,...

Research has emphasized the importance of practice learning to social work qualifying education but has tended to feature social work educator and student perspectives more strongly than the views of those responsible for assessing students' practice in the field. This article draws on 195...

Adult protection policy slowly developed in England and Wales during the 1990s. In the same decade specialist residential services expanded for people with mental health problems and with learning disabilities, some of which were secure or semi-secure in status. Many referrals to adult...

This article reports on an element of recently completed research that aimed to explore factors leading to placement on the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) List-a barring list unique to England and Wales. A multiple methods approach was adopted, involving in-depth quantitative analysis of...

Cash for care or consumer-directed services are increasing in scope and size in Europe and North America. The English Department of Health initiated a pilot form of personalised support for adults (Individual Budgets) in 13 local authorities that aimed to extend opportunities for users of social...

Individual Budgets are central to the implementation of English government policy goals in social care. Like other consumer-directed or self-directed support programmes operating in parts of the developed world, they are envisaged as a way of increasing individuals' choice and control over...

The views of people with experiences of using services and the views of their carers about the 2005 Mental Capacity Act (England and Wales) are reported in this article. Interviews with ten people about the detail of the Act prior to its implementation revealed that they welcomed the principles...

After many years of debate in the UK about the need for a degree-level qualification in social work, the arguments for a minimum degree-level qualification were accepted. The requirements for the degree in England were developed drawing on work from a number of sources, including a benchmark...