This radically revised text (previously known as Social Work Futures) is uniquely tailored to fit the needs of final year social work trainees. With an emphasis on refining and deepening professional skills, the text offers clear guidance on hot topics and higher order skills such as research-based practice and leadership.

Introduction.- What Do We Mean by Integrative Social Work?.- PART 1: UNCERTAINTY AND COMPLEXITY IN PRACTICE.- What do we mean by Integrative Social Work? (TBC).- Encountering Complexity and Uncertainty.- Persistent Oppressions: The Example of Domestic Violence.- Risk and Protection: Working With Children and Families.- Troubled and in Trouble: Young People, Truancy and Offending.- Sexuality.- Frailty and Dignity in Old Age.- Risk, Rights and Anti-discrimination Work in Mental Health.- Social Work with Asylum-seekers.- Legal and Illicit Drug Use.- PART 2: MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE.- Management and Managerialism.- Managing the Workload.- Partnership Working.- Strategic Leadership and Planning.- Supervision and Being Supervised.- Managing Risk and Decision-making.- Managing Finances.- Quality Assurance.- Change and Continuity in Social Work.- PART 3: RESEARCHING SOCIAL WORK.- Research Methods for Ethical Practice.- Getting Started With a Piece of Research/Evaluation in Social Work.- Doing Literature Searches and Reviews.- Experiencing Research as a Practitioner.- Evaluating Practice.- Emancipatory Social Work Research.- Developing Social Work Research.- Concluding Comment.

Become a confident and effective practitioner with Practising Social Work in a Complex World. It provides the clearest and most authoritative introduction available to working in situations characterised not only by risk and change but also by high pressure to deliver successful outcomes. The book is uniquely geared to the needs of students in the final stages of their qualifying course, professionals returning to study, or those simply wishing to deepen their professional understanding. It is distinguished by:- Its coherent and thoughtful coverage of practice situations involving complexity, tension and uncertainty- Its focus on how social work can contribute by integrating the perspectives of service users, carers, other professionals and the wider agency context- Its discussion of a range of management skills, which are presented as versatile tools for all practitioners- Its extended exploration of social work research, as an important but widely debated professional resource. This is one of three interrelated books edited by the internationally renowned and widely published team, Robert Adams, Lena Dominelli and Malcolm Payne. It was formerly published as Social Work Futures. The companion books are Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates (third edition) and Critical Practice in Social Work (second edition). Each book can be used alone or in combination with the other two as a uniquely flexible and comprehensive programme of study.

ROBERT ADAMS is Visiting Professor of Social Work at the University of Teesside. SARAH BANKS is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, UK. DI BARNES is Research Fellow in the Centre for Applied Social and Community Studies at the University of Durham. GRETA BRADLEY is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Hull, UK. VIVIENE CREE is Professor and Head of Social Work at the University of Edinburgh, UK. LENA DOMINELLI is Professor of Applied Social Sciences and Head of Social and Community and Youth Work at the University of Durham, UK. NICK FROST is Senior Lecturer in the School of Continuing Education, University of Leeds, UK. HELEN GORMAN has been a social worker, educator, and researcher in health and social welfare. She has been a research supervisor for a number of years, and currently tutors students on Masters and Doctoral programmes for the Centre for Labour Market Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. ANGELA GRIER is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. DEBRA HAYES is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Applied Community Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. STEPHEN HICKS is Reader in Health and Social Care in the School of Community, Health Sciences and Social Care at the University of Salford, UK. BETH HUMPHRIES is a social work academic and researcher. She is currently Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. GLENYS JONES CAROL LEWIS has many years experience of teaching on qualifying programmes, as well as teaching research methods and supervising doctoral students as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Bournemouth University, UK. MARK LYMBERY is Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Nottingham, UK. JILL MANTHORPE is Reader in Community Care at the University of Hull, UK. FIONA MEASHAM is Lecturer in criminology at Lancaster University, UK. ANDY MILLWARD was, until his retirement in November 2006, Head of Business for Older People with Nottingham City Council's Adult Services, Housing and Health Department, UK. AUDREY MULLENDER is College Principal of Ruskin College, Oxford, UK. TERENCE O'SULLIVAN is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Lincoln, UK. JOAN ORME is Professor of Social Work at the University of Glasgow, UK. IAN PAYLOR is Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Science at Lancaster University, UK. MALCOLM PAYNE is Policy and Development Adviser at St Christopher's Hospice, London. JULIA PHILLIPSON is an independent social care consultant based in Wales. JACKIE POWELL LIZ SAYCE is Chief Executive for the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR). TERRY THOMAS is Professor of Criminal Justice Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. SUSAN WALLACE is the Education Programmes Manager in the Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre for Scotland, located within Social Work at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Focus on how social work can benefit by integrating the perspectives of service users, carers, other professionals and the wider agency context Discussion of a range of management skills as versatile tools for all practitioners Extended exploration of social work research as a professional resource This is one of three interrelated books edited by the internationally renowned and widely published team, Robert Adams, Lena Dominelli and Malcolm Payne