Social Policy, Service Users and Carers

Book excerpt: This textbook provides a greater understanding of the lived effect that social policies have on service users and carers. While service user and carer involvement has become more and more prominent in social policy over recent years, it is rarely the case that the perspectives of service users and carers goes beyond consultation to truly meaningful involvement and co-production. This book is unique in that it has ten substantive co-produced chapters with service users and carers who have direct lived experiences of social policies. The chapters include lived experiences of direct payments, domestic violence and abuse, looked after children, being a foster carer, receiving long term health and social care, welfare to work, mental health, the transition to leaving care and being a carer. The ground-breaking textbook draws on these lived experiences to highlight key lessons that are relevant to social policy, and will provide an impetus towards changes to make such polices better support service users and carers. We hope that this book will inspire academics, policy makers, students and practitioners but, most importantly, it will encourage service users and carers to come forward with their own narratives to further shape social policy.