This volume draws together specially commissioned pieces by a range of experts on the key knowledge, theories and skills needed for professional social work practice. Carefully structured to reflect the way in which social work courses are generally taught, it offers a handbook for all beginning social work students, giving them not just a flavour of what being a social worker entails but also a critical sense of the debates (practical and theoretical) that it spawns. The book is suitable for: introductory courses on the Diploma in Social Work (over 5000 students a year in the UK alone); social work educators and practitioners; and students and professionals in related caring professions (such as youth and community work, criminal justice, care management).