Ian Greener is Reader in Social Policy at Durham University.Chris Holden is Lecturer in Global Health in the Centre on Global Change and Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.Majella Kilkey is Lecturer in Social Policy in the Department of Social Sciences, University of Hull.

• Part one: Current developments ~ Ian Greener: Education policy and policy making, 1997-2009 ~ Clyde Chitty; Children's social care under New Labour ~ Mary Langan; Health policy under New Labour: not what it seems? ~ Sally Ruane; Towards a social democratic pension system? Assessing the significance of the 2007 and 2008 Pensions Acts ~ Paul Bridgen; Prize-winning paper: Minimum income standards and household budgets ~ Chris Deeming; Part two: Current issues and debates ~ Chris Holden: Reconnecting with 'what unemployment means': employability, the experience of unemployment and priorities for policy in an era of crisis ~ Colin Lindsay; Facing the 'dark side' of deregulation: The politics of two-tier labour markets in Germany and Japan after the global financial crisis ~ Steffen Heinrich; Flexibility, xenophobia and exploitation: modern slavery in the UK ~ Gary Craig; Mi Familia Progresa: change and continuity in Guatemala's social policy ~ Elena Gaia; Part three: Service user involvement ~ Majella Kilkey: Service users and social policy: challenging dominant discourses ~ Peter Beresford; Participation and social justice ~ Marian Barnes, Colin Gell and Pat Thomas; Involving disabled children and young people in research and consultations: issues, challenges and opportunities ~ David Abbott; Responding to unhappy childhoods in the UK: enhancing young people's 'well-being' through participatory action research ~ Charlie Cooper; Service users as peer research interviewers: why bother? ~ Rachel Harding, Grahame Whitfield and Neil Stilwell

"As up-to-date and stimulating as usual, but even more timely this year with a review of New Labour. A 'must read' for everyone involved with social policy." Martin Powell, University of Birmingham