Conclusions

As outlined in Chapter 1, and repeatedly evident in other chapters throughout this book, social policy is an academic subject that is founded in the social sciences and which relates to other social science and related subjects such as economics, history, politics, and sociology. It is a subject that continues to have major relevance to and links with a range of professions, such as nursing, social work, and housing. Yet, at the same time, social policy is also something that goes on in the real world and which affects real people on a daily basis. It is sometimes therefore necessary to take all of these actualities into account when discussing ‘social policy’. To some extent, this chapter refl ects this: its primary purpose is to focus upon developments in the real world, but at the same time it seeks to point out a number of areas where the academic subject is concerned, and where the two may come together, to point this out.