Details:- Assessment is coursework assignment (maximum 5000 words, assessing learning outcomes 1-3), submitted at the end of the CPE programme.

The focus is on citizens' 'welfare' in its various forms, including aspects of the family, work, childhood, and old age for which the State has responsibilities, through the Community Care, benefits, and other social welfare services systems: but also in its wider sphere, including legal interventions in the family, employment relationship, and in other relations (private as well as public).

Specific themes include:
(1) welfare support, rights, responsibilities in relation to State provision (benefits, services, healthcare, etc)
(2) welfare aspects of Family Law (on separation and divorce, and in relation to the well-being of children, vulnerable members of families, and financial support)
(3) employment as the 'best form of welfare' (with consideration of aspects of the employment relationship in which legal interventions operate with a view to promoting welfare outcomes: job security, discrimination, low pay, in-work State welfare, assistance to disadvantaged groups, occupational benefits on termination of employment, pensions, etc)
(4) housing (in relation to homelessness, and welfare-led interventions in the landlord-tenant relationship, mortgages, and rent costs, eviction)
(5) immigration and asylum, including financial support for migrants and dependants
(6) older citizens' rights
(7) Public Law aspects of welfare, including appeal and judicial review as a means of securing access to State welfare support and community support services
(8) EC Law and ECHR/human rights aspects of social welfare and social protection systems

Clements, L Community Care & the Law (London: Legal Action Group, 2004)

Other texts on specific themes are recommended in the Study Guide, for example:
Hervey, T European Social Law and Policy (London: Longman)
Willman, S, Knafler, S, and Pierce, S Support for Asylum-Seekers (London: Legal Action Group)
Coker, J, Finch, N and Stanley, A Putting Children First (London: Legal Action Group)
Bowers, J., Lewis, J., Employment Law and Human Rights (London: Sweet and Maxwell)
Puttick, K., Welfare Benefits & Tax Credits: Law & Practice (EMIS Professional Publishing, 2006 9th ed)

Well stocked law library
Internet resources on general and specialist data bases
Appropriate texts, legislation (including EC and ECHR sources), and case law

Students attend scheduled whole-group contact sessions (eight one-hour sessions in total). These are held in periods during which participants will be engaged in directed study and independent reading/enquiry in respect of the social welfare law system; and provide the opportunity to consider core subject themes (the State and citizens' `welfare'; the family and welfare; employment & work as `welfare'; housing needs and support; migrants' rights; support for the older citizen; Public Law systems; and the Europeanisation of welfare (EC/ECHR Law). Total Contact Sessions = 8 Hours

As prescribed by the professional bodies, the CPE 8th subject is a largely self-managed part of the programme. By the start of Semester 2 participants must have identified an area of research in which they are interested from a list of approved topics, or in an area in which they have interests (and which must be approved). They then research that topic, and produce a coursework assignment (maximum 5000 words in length).

Students are encouraged to discuss their work with each-other throughout the year, and to use the seminar sessions to discuss their research, and share the results of their work with other participants. Otherwise, study time focuses on directed and self-managed reading and research (192 study hours in total).

Support is provided throughout the programme by the subject leader.