All Our Welfare: Towards Participatory Social Policy

The UK welfare state is under sustained ideological and political attack. In All Our Welfare, Peter Beresford explores the establishment and trajectory of the postwar welfare state and offers a blueprint for participatory social policy in the future. By showing that early welfare policies resulted from popular revulsion against the inequity of the market and associated poor laws, Beresford reveals that the welfare state was ultimately undermined by its failure to engage the people it was intended to help. Noting the subsequent similar failure of neoliberal social policy to engage people in improving their own welfare, Beresford draws on the pioneering theories and practices of current welfare service user movements to outline participatory approaches to social policy theory, knowledge development, policy, practice, and support, identifying a series of principles that could underpin them and offering inclusive models for sustainable change. Also including fascinating vignettes from his own family’s experience, Beresford demonstrates the value of user knowledge.