Who decides what happens in classrooms, early years settings and children's services - and on what basis? Policy influences every aspect of childhood and education provision, yet it often recedes into the background of discussions about how schools and other settings should run, what teachers should do, how assessment should happen and how professionals should engage with parents.

Demystifying what policy is, how it works and how it can be critically interrogated using a coherent multi-lens framework, this textbook supports readers to identify the ideas, values and power relations embedded in education and childhood policy.

The book features:

. clearly explained policy lenses linked to theory and research;

. practical toolkits with guided questions to support structured analysis; and

. applied case studies and practitioner insights showing how policy is interpreted, enacted and sometimes resisted in practice.

Accessible yet intellectually rigorous, this book encourages readers to think about their own agency in shaping policy on the ground as they (re)interpret, implement and sometimes subvert policy.