Social Care Management, Strategy and Business Planning

Trish Hafford-Letchfield is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Middlesex University. She has spent many years managing adult services in a local authority and has remained in practice through her continuing involvement with the voluntary sector as a Trustee and management mentor. Trish has been involved with leadership and management education for several years. She has published widely in this area and has a specific interest in older people and equality issues in both education and practice.

• Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Thinking about the legislative and policy environment for social care. 2. Strategic planning. 3. The business planning process. 4. Managing resources in your business plan. 5. Project management. 6. The commissioning and contracting process. 7. Managing performance. 8. The process of decision-making. 9. Risk assessment and risk management. 10. Evaluation. References. Contributors to manager's comments. Index.

This is a text grounded in social care policy and practice which provides the base for the discussion of social care leadership and management. The message is about participative management, the medium is engagement with people across the organisation, and the means are the tools and techniques introduced, described and made relevant with examples of their use within social care. It is wide-ranging and practical and is both an introductory text to read and a reference book to browse.