My approach to reviewing this book is not based on assessing it from the viewpoint of someone contemplating its usage as an introductory text for those studying social policy at a British University. Rather I am reviewing through the eyes of someone from the other side of the world who has a more than passing acquaintance with of some aspects of British social policy and a complete lack of knowledge of other aspects. My assessment therefore is based on its usefulness in providing someone from ‘out of town’ with a basic understanding of the important aspects of social policy provision in Britain.

The book is certainly large enough to meet this goal with Baldock, Manning and Vickerstaff's tome totalling 722 pages. This third edition, published four years after the second, is divided into 23 chapters organised into five parts: ‘The Origins, Character, and Politics of Modern Social Welfare Systems’, ‘The Social and Economic Context’, ‘Planning, Financing and Implementing Welfare Policies’, ‘Delivering Welfare’ and ‘The Consequences and Outcomes of Social Policy’.

The chapters in the first two parts of the book provide a basis for understanding the social, political and economic contexts in which actual social polices in Britain are delivered, while the chapters in the third part serve to explain the range of mechanisms underlying policy delivery. The chapters gathered in the fourth part under the label ‘Delivering Welfare’ provide detailed information on the substantive areas of social policy, such as cash transfers, health, education care, housing, crime and the environment. The final part included chapters examining the impact of social policy and new thinking about welfare.

Several aspects of the chapters included in these sections warrant comment. First, the inclusion of a chapter, titled ‘Globalisation and Social Policy’, absent from the second edition of the book, alerts us to the increased importance of this topic for students of social policy. Second, the last chapter of the book, ‘New Thinking about Social Welfare’ may have been better positioned at the first part. Reading this material, prior to engaging with the more detailed material in the third and fourth parts, may have given students a new or wider set of views with which to interpret this later material.

A book this size needs to be well organised in order to facilitate easy access to those sections of interest and in this regard the book is well served. The book provides a detailed list of contents at the beginning, which is repeated at the start of each chapter. Throughout the text, chapters are broken up into readable sections via the use of cartoons, tables, figures and boxes containing detailed explanations of particular issues relevant to the chapter. In addition, each chapter contains a guide to key legislation and in some cases key policy documents, a substantial list of references, a guide to further reading, the addresses of useful websites, a glossary of important terms and a list of proposed essay questions. These resources are exceptionally useful for those seeking to gain a broader understanding of the areas of interest to them.

While acknowledging the merits of the book, of which there are many, there is one substantive and several very minor criticisms I would make. The substantive criticism relates to the lack of any attempt to provide an overview, however brief, of the development of British social policy. Early in the book the editors note, in there discussion of this omission, that they have chosen not to include such as section in order to avoid the selection of ‘biased or inaccurate’ (p.23) accounts. While this is a relevant point, I feel that an introductory text of this nature should contain some account of the historical development of social policy in Britain. The choice of current polices in many areas cannot be adequately understood without this historical knowledge.

The minor criticisms are threefold. First each chapter contains a separate glossary and I do think, given the overlap in many areas of social policy, that a combined glossary at the end of the book would have been more useful. Second, the amount of information, especially under the heading of ‘Key Legislation and Policy Documents’ varies in quality and quantity from chapter to chapter, and indeed is absent altogether from some chapters. Third, a timeline of significant events over recent decades for the social policy arena overall would have been a useful addition.

These generally minor criticisms aside, the book, assessed from the viewpoint of an ‘outsider’, does provide a comprehensive introduction to the contemporary issues of importance in British social policy. Anybody approaching the subject would be well advised to make this book their starting point. Its layout and content offer a model of clarity that should serve as a model for those writing such introductory texts for other subject areas.