Understanding Public Services: A Contemporary Introduction

Dive inside this textbook for an accessible guide to the discipline of public services.

Perfect for students, it offers a comprehensive account of core public service topics and explains the fundamental elements of working in the public services. Outlining their role in the welfare state, it explores the policies, providers and legalities shaping the context in which public services operate.

Students will study concepts of organisational change, strategy, management, leadership and funding, and engage with timely discussions around contemporary public issues such as equality, sustainability and climate change. Key features to support student learning include:

• objectives at the beginning of each chapter;

• case studies and examples;

• end of chapter summaries;

• reflective questions;

• further reading recommendations and resources.

Bringing together authors with expertise in politics and public policy, social policy and law, this book is essential reading for everybody studying public services.

E.K. Sarter is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick and was previously Senior Lecturer for Social Policy and Public Service Management at the University of South Wales.

Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey is Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the University of York. She previously worked as Lecturer in Public Service Management at the University of South Wales.