"Excellent additions to undergraduate social work education." Julie Williams "With new local permissiveness on organisational arrangements and with sector led improvement the new mantra, this is a timely and important contribution to understanding the contribution social work can potentially still make." Peter Dwyer, Director of Adults, Children and Education, City of York Council "A readable, wide-ranging and very topical exploration of the concept of agency which demonstrates its real potential for developing theory and practice in social work and social welfare more generally." Nigel Parton, University of Huddersfield "At once bold, clear, straightforward and radical, this closely observed account puts relationship and agency at the heart of social work: offering the possibility for active participation in the creation of lives lived with meaning and purpose." Leonie Hilliard, Principal Adult Psychotherapist, South West Yorkshire NHS Trust