Policy and Politics in the Twenty-First Century

Education policy in England is constantly evolving and becoming increasingly incoherent and it is therefore becoming harder to keep up with, and make sense of, all the changes. This bestselling book looks at the role of the UK as a social laboratory for global education policy. Covering key concepts, it then examines new areas, including: • Global education policy mobility • Edu-business and philanthropy as policy actors • Marketisation of education • Increase in performance gap • Poverty and austerity • Impact of COVID-19 on schools and in education policy • New forms of governance This extensively updated fourth edition by the key author in the field will maintain its place as the most important text on education policy and makes essential reading for all students and anyone interested in education policy more generally.

Health care systems everywhere face multiple pressures from changing demography, the rise of non-communicable disease, the growing demand on health services, and limited resources at a time of austerity. Focusing on the British NHS from a political science perspective, this second edition of this best-selling book offers a fresh look at how it is coping with such pressures. The book explores the complexity of health policy and health services, offering a critical perspective on concerns including integrated care, the return of public health to local government and moves to devolve health services to local level. Crucially, it offers a critique of the market-style changes introduced by the Coalition government between 2010 and 2015. Students of health care and health policy, policy-makers and public health and health care professionals will find this lively and accessible reassessment of NHS reforms invaluable.

The emergence of Britain as a fully fledged home-owning society at the end of the 20th century has major implications for how houses are used not just as a home but as an asset. The key debate in this important and timely book is whether social policy and people's homes should be so closely connected, especially when housing markets are so volatile. It will be essential reading for all students and practitioners of housing and those concerned with how social and public policy is being shaped in the 21st century.

At a time when transport is high on the political agenda and government decision-making is being vigorously scrutinized, there is a need for an incisive and accessible analysis of the key policy issues. This book is a highly readable introduction to the transport debate from two experts in the field. The authors celebrate the advantages of a modern transport system, but argue that years of poorly conceived and executed transport policy have resulted in Britain's transport system being far worse than it should be. They show that a substandard transport system creates economic, social and environmental costs, but demonstrate how these can be addressed through affordable and politically deliverable changes. Using a refreshingly novel approach, Shaw and Docherty use the familiar idea of the journey as the basis for their discussion. The book follows members of the Smith family as they uncover a wide array of transport issues, including why the problems we all encounter as we travel around actually come about; which policy trade-offs were responsible for creating them in the first place; what impacts we all have to suffer as a result; and what we can do to fix them. This lively and engaging approach will make the book ideal for a wide readership.

A contribution to one of the most hotly contested issues in Europe, The migration debate provides a well-balanced, critical analysis of UK migration policies, in a European context, from entry controls through to integration and citizenship. Exploring the pressures and constraints that have shaped a rapidly shifting policy terrain, this accessible overview offers a considered assessment of policy options to provide the foundation for a less polarized, better-informed public debate. Unusual in its coverage of immigration for work, study, family and protection, and in its insistence that an understanding of integration processes must be considered alongside analysis of entry controls, The migration debate will be of equal value to policy makers as to a multi-disciplinary academic readership.