Policies are only documents and not law, but these policies can lead to new laws.” “Laws are set standards, principles, and procedures that must be followed in society. While a law is framed for bringing justice to the society, a policy is framed for achieving certain goals.”

Types of policies

• Criminal Justice: death penalty, drug policy, and gun control.
• Culture and Society: abortion, arts, and civil rights.
• Economic Affairs: budget and taxes.
• Education: elementary and secondary, and higher education.
• Environment: air quality and global warming.

Primary sources can include diaries, letters, speeches, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, and much more. For more information, see What are Primary Sources.

Important areas of social policy are wellbeing and welfare, poverty reduction, social security, justice, unemployment insurance, living conditions, animal rights, pensions, health care, social housing, family policy, social care, child protection, social exclusion, education policy, crime and criminal justice, urban …

Social policy aims to identify and find ways of reducing inequalities in access to services and support between social groups defined by socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, migration status, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age, and between countries.

36 Social policy presupposes social choices which presuppose social values. Societies, like individuals, must make choices. In a democracy these choices must be made collectively.

There are good examples of social policy being effective in reducing inequality and poverty, successfully playing more than a residual role, addressing areas beyond a safety net, and engaging with broad public policy issues of distribution, protection, production and reproduction.

Any government enactment that affects the well-being of people, including laws, regulations, executive orders, and court decisions, is a social policy. In the United States, with its federal tradition of shared government, social policies are made by governments at many levels—local, state, and national.

Policies are important to social workers because they help our clients live better lives. Policies help to protect our clients from discrimination, racism, or bullying. Policies help our clients live more productive lives by supplementing their income, providing health care, or by obtaining needed medical treatments.

From a social welfare policy standpoint, social workers do everything from helping craft federal, state, and local policies to overseeing the administration of social programs to working directly with the recipients of assistance, ensuring that they meet qualifications and that they receive the help they need and are …

Policies have an impact on the work of social workers and may limit the profession’s ability to promote efficacy in service delivery to consumers. More resources need to be allocated to promote policy practice and integrate macro and micro levels in social work programs.

Social policy helps us to understand social problems in our society or world and their causes, which affects every individual and how the government have or are implementing policies to solve these social problems. The key purpose of social work is to support and protect people who are considered vulnerable in society.

Policy practice is defined as using social work skills to propose and change policies in order to achieve the goal of social and economic justice. Policy practice is defined as using social work skills to propose and change policies in order to achieve the goal of social and economic justice (see Box 1.1).

Social workers make important contributions to society by working to improve the lives of individuals, families and groups. Social workers offer direct-care services, helping people cope with everyday problems, and clinical services, providing diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues.