Canadian Social Policy: Issues and Perspectives ed. by Anne Westhues and Brian Wharf (review)

This collection employs a broad definition of social policy, is shaped by the goals of social work training set out by the Canadian Association of Social Work educators and is aimed at social workers and social work students. The contents of this (fifth) edition have been updated, since 2006, by incorporation of new data, accounts of new policies and discussion of recent policy analysis. There are several new chapters, including policy on social housing, and violence within the youth criminal justice system.

An introductory chapter (part I) considers definitions of social policy and locates approaches to social policy in political and governmental context. The first two chapters of part II cover the process of policy-making and approaches to policy analysis. These provide a basis for policy evaluation while asserting a commitment to social justice. Later chapters in this section include consideration of an Indigenous perspective, an analysis of racism focused on discrimination in employment in public service and an account of social policy in Quebec. A selection of current issues is covered by the 12 chapters of part III, starting with single motherhood and continuing with summaries and commentaries on policies which include care of children, mental health, disabilities, aging and housing. The final chapter (part IV) considers the role of social workers as advocates and outlines the principles for policy analysis which are offered by the Canadian Association of Social Workers. There is a detailed index and each chapter provides a guide to additional resources.

Variations in the content and style of the chapters lead to questions about coverage and doubts about connections with contemporary social work practice. Some chapters (e.g. Vaillancourt, chapter 7) make reference to international comparisons but reference to good practice from other countries is not a consistent theme of the book. Although discrimination in employment is the focus of one chapter, there is no consideration of broader patterns of racism, and there is no acknowledgement or evaluation of the last two decades of anti-racist policies. The chapter on Indigenous perspectives (Saulis, chapter 5) constructs a universal model with no history and makes no reference to previous literature on social work training for Indigenous people. Neither this chapter nor references to Indigenous perspectives elsewhere in the book connect easily with recent critical evaluations of policy and practice towards Indigenous children and youth by the Representative for Children and Youth in British Columbia. Notwithstanding these observations, the breadth of coverage of this collection is considerable. As well as providing a basis for understanding current social policy in Canada, the discussion of policy contexts and approaches to evaluation will help readers in their appraisal of emerging problems in policy implementation. This collection demonstrates that a point made in the opening sentence of the introduction, addressed to social workers, ‘Social policy shapes our daily lives’ (Westhues, p. 3), is relevant to everyone.