Social policy is now central to political debate in Britain. What has been achieved through efforts to improve services and reduce poverty? What is needed to deliver more effective and popular services to all and increase social justice? These are some of the questions discussed in this collection of essays by a distinguished panel of leading social policy academics. The essays have been specially written in honor of the 70th birthday of Howard Glennerster, whose work is concerned not only with the theoretical, historical, and political foundations of social policies but, crucially, with how they work in practice. All too often services delivered at street level fall far short of planners' dreams and politicians' rhetoric. The book examines the delivery of social policy, focusing on the family and the state, schools, higher education, healthcare, social care, communities, housing, child poverty, and pension reform.
