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We first published ‘Theory and Practice’ in 2009 as a direct result of the fact that so many students were buying the book we had written for practice educators ‘Social Work Theory’. Since that first edition, ‘Theory and Practice’ has become popular with social work students in many countries, and we would go as far as to say it has become a ‘much-loved’ book in the profession. When we meet social workers so many of them tell us that they used “the big red book” in their training.

The years since the last edition (2015) have passed quickly. We were actually working on a new edition when the Covid19 pandemic hit and we decided to wait a while to see what impact the pandemic might have in terms of theory but perhaps more importantly in terms of practice. As we came to work again on the text, we recognised that the previous editions of both this book and the version for practice educators needed a great deal of work, since so much has changed in terms of both theory and practice in the last few years.

Rather than revising both books separately we decided to bring everything together in one ‘big book’. We know that ‘Theory and Practice’ has been used by social workers long after they qualify and we hope that in bringing the two books together this will demonstrate how theory constantly informs our practice, whilst recognising the way that we use theory perhaps changes with our increasing experience and practice wisdom. This means that at different times in the book you will see notes for students; for practitioners; for practice educators and for supervisors.

There is a great deal ‘new’ in this edition. We hope that we have been clearer about the difference between theories, models, methods and approaches and this has meant a revised structure. We have also included a range of concepts, approaches and theories which were not in previous editions. Crucially, we have included a specific chapter addressing the need to ‘decolonise’ the theory base in social work and we hope that we have modelled this within the book.

There are 8 sections and 56 chapters offering a clear explanation of the major theories used within social work. Ideas about application to practice and suggestions for developing theory informed practice are included throughout.