Outline the key topics that underpin the study of Social Policy - Essay Example

THE STUDY OF SOCIAL POLICY Social policy is defined as making processes or policies for the society. Alcock, May, & Wright have d social policy as the study of human well-being, of which there are two kinds. The first kind is all about doing good for people, whereas the second kind is all about everything. These statements may not easily explain social policy. Social policy covers the study of social relations necessary for betterment of the human being in the society (Baldock, Mitton, Manning, & Vickerstaff, 2011).

Social policy is about how different factors influence the people in the society. Social policy encourages similar living standards for everyone in the society. This includes providing equal education, healthcare, employment, money, security, and other important necessities of life. There are some important bodies involved in social policy as well and these include government, official bodies, charitable organizations, social human beings, neighbors, and families (Alcock, May, & Wright, 2012).

Social policy is not only concerned with what the government does for citizens. However, social policy refers to the social spending by any individual for other. Social policy defines the role of government to spend for the people. These spending include pension funds, hospitals, and schools. Based only on government, the social policy can vary depending upon several factors including economic situation. Social policy is a wide subject accompanying different approaches including sociology, psychology, history, economics, demography, and human geography.

Therefore, it could also be defined as combining approaches from the different social sciences. The key topics in social policy are: 1. Social Security2. Health3. Education4. Housing and Environment5. Personal Social ServicesSocial policy may also include other important aspect such as the amount of spending that the government should make on defense, law and order, industry and agricultural employment, transport, sport and culture, international development, and debt interest. Although the government of most of the countries do more than one-third of the collected wealth, but the private spending in social policy is more than the services government providing.

Understanding the term of doing well or good to human beings is complex. It includes different factors and the study of these factors is social policy, and social science. The above mentioned five key factors of social policy are given birth by the societies just because either society understands and recognizes the social human needs and gives an expression of social welfare. Another important believe of the social policy is that when it is implemented it is not necessary that it will promote the capabilities of human well-being.

(Vargas-Hernández, Noruzi, & Ali, 2011)Moving forward, in the past years study of social policy has broadened its roots. The growth of social policy enhances the growth of education, health care. Mostly the increased growth has been seen in the field of personal social services, this growing trend has increased the responsibility of the government to invest more for the reduction of poverty, ill-health, poor housing, insufficient education, and unemployment to deliver the efficient social policies promoting the role of charities, NGOs, families.

Mostly, social policy focuses on the interdependent nature, in which human beings care about each other hence, performing the social welfare activity. The goal of social policy is to maximize a good life for human beings and this is the reason why the term social policy includes constitutes of a good life and the nature of human need.ReferencesAlcock, P., May, M., & Wright, S. (Eds.). (2012). The students companion to social policy. John Wiley & Sons.Baldock, J., Mitton, L., Manning, N., & Vickerstaff, S. (Eds.). (2011). Social policy.

Oxford University Press.Vargas-Hernández, J., Noruzi, M. R., & Ali, I. F. N. H. (2011). What is Policy, Social Policy and Social Policy Changing?. International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 2, no. 10, pp. 287-291.