In highly unequal Britain, poverty and social exclusion continue to dominate the lives of users of social work and social care services. At the same time, years of austerity combined with welfare reform have changed the context in which services are delivered in a society roiled by Brexit, Covid, Black Lives Matter and women rallying under the banner, “Me‑too”.

This fourth edition lays out the ways and means for practitioners to tackle the deprivation and destitution of service users. Fully revised and expanded, it introduces new material that tracks changes and developments in policy and practice. Statutes, benefit rules and relevant research are discussed as part of the necessary knowledge base for practitioners. Greater attention than in previous editions is paid to: local authority commissioning, the impact of social media on the mental health of young people, substandard housing and working with transgender youth.

Preparing practitioners to engage directly with the social and personal circumstances facing excluded individuals and their families, this book explains the development of the concept of social exclusion as a framework for understanding the impact of poverty and other deprivations in users’ lives, and locates that framework within social work values of social justice while acknowledging the many challenges to those values. The focus is on practice throughout with boxed extracts from key policies and guidelines along with questions for readers to ponder through up‑to‑date examples, activities and exercises in each chapter. Case studies from public, private and voluntary sectors are drawn from across the United Kingdom, to illuminate the way forward for poverty‑aware social work.

Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion will be required reading for all BA and MA social work degrees across the United Kingdom.