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Management and Organisations in Social Work
Trish Hafford-Letchfield,
Learning Matters
ISBN 1844450449, £16

STAR RATING 4/5

As an introduction to the study of management and organisations through which social work and social care are delivered, this text will be popular with students, writes
John McCavish.

Trish Hafford-Letchfield provides a brief exploration of the structure and culture of social care, models of management, ideas about quality assurance, resources and the challenge of addressing need and demand. She achieves this with reference to current legislation and social policy.

Written in the familiar Learning Matters format (is this the new “Dummies Guide” for social workers?), each chapter provides useful links to the National Occupational Standards and GSCC codes of practice for social workers. Exercises are provided for personal reflection and group discussion.

Snippets of research provide some evidence to support current management and organisation practice. The emphasis on values in organisations and the need to involve service users in the design and delivery of services permeate every chapter.

However, although the book acknowledges the research evidence that underpins management and organisational practice, it does this in a simplistic manner, failing to enhance a reader’s critical awareness of the body of ideas that exists, some of which may be contradictory.

John McCavish is a lecturer in social work at the University of Lincoln