Review

Illuminating and wide-ranging

Social policy: an introduction
Ken Blakemore
McGraw-Hill Education, 2003. £16.99

Social policy is a crucial and neglected area of debate, sitting as it does between politics, social administration and management. Policy wonks – among them subscribers to this magazine – often know too little of the world outside their silo, both geographically and in related policy areas.

This textbook is illuminating and wide-ranging. As any textbook does, it skates over complex problems and avoids some difficult issues, and in order to discuss key concepts it has to include a lot of description to ensure the reader understands.

Blakemore’s exposition of major policy issues includes examples from around the world over the past half century. He deals in some detail with education, health, housing and social security. He does not, however, include criminology, transport, the environment or employment, except in so far as he deals with unemployment. His treatment of health concentrates largely on healthcare. And although there is an interesting chapter on devolution, he makes little mention of local authorities.

As think tanks proliferate, there should be plenty of demand for social policy studies. Perhaps if this book is more widely read, the number of half-baked ideas that emerge from them and the number of unqualified policy advisers will be reduced.