Managing Care in Context

This major new textbook looks at the diversity and complexity of the manager's task in the changing context of care provision and argues for a practice-led approach. Informed by extensive consultation with managers, practitioners and users of services, the authors of this textbook:

* examine the policy, legal and organisational contexts of care
* highlight the impact for managers of the government's modernising agenda and initiatives for inter-professional working
* discuss the role of the managers in providing ethical care grounded in good practice
* tackle the task of translating competing views from service users and carers into high-quality service provision
* review the position of the manager in relation to debates on the deprofessionalisation of care.

Managing Care in Context is essential reading for students, practitioners and aspiring, new and experienced managers of care within the health and social services sector. It will help managers to understand what their role is, how it has developed and how to face the challenges of the future.

This major new textbook looks at the diversity and complexity of the manager's task in the changing context of care provision and argues for a practice-led approach. Informed by extensive consultation with managers, practitioners and users of services, the authors of this textbook:

* examine the policy, legal and organisational contexts of care
* highlight the impact for managers of the government's modernising agenda and initiatives for inter-professional working
* discuss the role of the managers in providing ethical care grounded in good practice
* tackle the task of translating competing views from service users and carers into high-quality service provision
* review the position of the manager in relation to debates on the deprofessionalisation of care.

Managing Care in Context is essential reading for students, practitioners and aspiring, new and experienced managers of care within the health and social services sector. It will help managers to understand what their role is, how it has developed and how to face the challenges of the future.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Susanne Astley(Creighton University Medical Center)
Description:This book was explicitly compiled with two companion volumes for an upper level course, Managing Care, in Great Britain's Open University, designed for students studying in their homes and workplaces. Upon completion, students receive a Certificate in Managing Care. The pieces are written specifically to explore practice, policy, and the law, the contexts of care, and people in social care.
Purpose:The editors strive to provide frontline managers guidance in practice-led management, emphasizing continual awareness of the demands, dilemmas, challenges, and opportunities of practice situations. They believe managing people who deliver care is fundamentally different than managing people in, for example, a factory, and examine how policy, practice, and organizational context affect managers.
Audience:Frontline managers in all care (health and social service) settings are the audience.
Features:The editors draw contributions from philosophy as well as social welfare academics, social work managers and practitioners, a psychologist, psychotherapist, and probation officer. They further integrate extensive, structured communication with frontline workers and service users. The 12 chapters in three sections cover topics as diverse as legal terms and issues (including explanation of some specific statutes), outcomes, organizational theory, ethical considerations, theories for understanding people, and lessons from the history of institutions. Each chapter is broken into smaller sections, ending in a synopsis of key points.
Assessment:This book explores an assortment of issues bearing some examination that normally do not occur in daily activities. It is heavily imbued in the bureaucratic concerns and cradle-to-grave orientation of the United Kingdom's social services. For those on this side of the Atlantic, it is of more academic than practical interest, although the historical lessons are instructive to all. The book has an inclusive, service-user centered orientation, along with an emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach, apparently reflecting the current philosophy of the government leadership.