Enhancing Social Work Management: Theory and best practice from the UK and USA

Jane Aldgate and others (eds),
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN 978184310 5152,
£22.99

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Whether the buzzword is “improving”, “reforming” or “modernising” social care, the effect on managers is the same, writes Roy Grimwood.

In the first chapter, John Harris sets the context for the subsequent ones by analysing trends in human services management. To succeed, he observes, “managers have to deliver more for less by getting more work out of people and working harder themselves”.

A collection of papers assembled by academics from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and the Open University School of Health and Social Welfare, this book draws on experiences from both sides of the Atlantic.

Chapters on the broader management issues of leadership, performance, change, new technology and translating vision into practice explore each topic within the context of modern social care. Other papers cover familiar public service themes such as managing across interagency boundaries, varied funding sources, cultural diversity, and balancing health, safety, risk and liability – again set in the experience of the social care manager. Discussions on user involvement and managing care environments home directly in on day-to-day service provision.

Roy Grimwood is a freelance consultant