Managing in Health and Social Care: Essential Checklists for Frontline Staff

By William Bryans.
Radcliffe Medical Press
ISBN 1857758560;
£19.95







Extra business support from team administrators and finance staff is always welcomed by social workers and team managers, as it releases time for more contact with service users, writes Anthony Douglas. This short book is a guide to managing resources in health and social care, especially how to ensure the back room supports the front line effectively. Sections on procurement, fund-raising, handling service users’ monies, and managing budgets are succinctly covered, though the problem with whistle-stop tours is you never stop anywhere long enough to explore any particular place or subject in depth, and this is true with Bryans’s book.

Written in clear and plain language, the book looks at business support in health and social care from the needs of people. While systems are vital to accuracy, systems without people are sterile and often misused or misapplied. Successful firms these days ensure their boards and senior management teams contain at least one business development specialist, rather than relying on service-based professionals only. This book is a timely contribution to that trend.

The strength of the book lies in its numerous checklists for specific areas. If followed, standards in back room services will undoubtedly be raised, however large or small the organisation.

Anthony Douglas is director of health and social care, Suffolk County Council.