Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates, one of the most respected and widely used textbooks in social work, has now been completely revised and updated. With its accessible and clearly structured framework, the book offers expert discussion of the core topics in social work by top writers, teachers and practitioners in the field. It provides an essential grounding in the debates that shape the profession, as well as a clear insight into the issues at the heart of practice.

What makes this highly regarded and bestselling book stand out from other texts?
- Its range, authority and theoretical integrity
- Its clear and effective structure, which reflects major shifts in teaching and makes it easy to use across modules
- The importance it lays on practice-based learning and on developing core practice skills such as communication, assessment and intervention
- Its value as a springboard to further reading (including extensive guidance on further print and electronic sources)
- Its compact size - perfect for readers who are travelling between campus and practice settings.

This is one of three interrelated books edited by the internationally renowned and widely published team, Robert Adams, Lena Dominelli and Malcolm Payne. The companion books are Critical Practice in Social Work (second edition) and Practising Social Work in a Complex World. 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 in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Teesside, UK. He has a considerable writing and publishing track record, for example as author of Social Policy for Social Work (Palgrave Macmillan), editor of Foundations of Health and Social Care (Palgrave Macmillan 2007), consultant editor for the Handbook of Postqualifying Social Work (Jessica Kingsley 2007).

LENA DOMINELLI is Professor of Applied Social Sciences and Head of Social and Community and Youth Work at the University of Durham, UK. She is an academician in the Academy of the Learned Societies for Social Sciences. From 1996 to 2004, she served as President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). She is widely published, with a number of important sole-authored books to her name, particularly in the areas of feminism and anti-racism. These include: Social Work: Theory and Practice in a Changing Profession (Polity Press, 2004); Anti-Oppressive Social Work Theory and Practice; and Anti-Racist Social Work (3rd edition).

MALCOLM PAYNE is Adviser (Policy and Devleopment) St Christopher's Hospice. He is also Emeritus Professor of Community Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Honorary Professor, Kingston University St George's Medical School. He is author of the global best-seller, Modern Social Work Theory, as well as numerous other books including Teamwork in Multiprofessional Care and The Origins of Social Work and Social Work Practice in Context.