Trish Hafford-Letchfield - How to Become a Better Manager in Social Work and Social Care

How to Become a Better Manager in Social Work and Social Care

How to Become a Better Manager in Social Work and Social Care

Essential Skills for Managing Care

Les Gallop and
Trish Hafford-Letchfield

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

Series Editors Foreword

This book acknowledges the specific need for social work and social care managers to develop a wider portfolio of skills which embrace the business aspects of management alongside ethical practice in very demanding environments. Managers who I have worked with in different settings have often struggled with keeping up with new developments in management and particularly with having enough time to think about their own learning and professional development. Becoming skilful as a manager does not always naturally emerge from ones professional experiences although much of what we learn is generated from our experience and tacit knowledge. The need to develop more tailored or specific skills for successful management might come to your attention for the first time when you move into a new management role or when you make a transition from one management role to another. Managers often acquire responsibility for managing others without the benefits of formal management training, and resort to utilizing fundamental life skills combined with professional expertise and practice know-how. This particular book, the first in the series of Essential Skills for Social Work and Social Care Managers , aims to give front line or aspiring managers access to a practical quality guide to some of these fundamental management skills. These have been particularly tailored for those working in social work and social care environments or any environment which has care at the core of its business.

The empirical evidence about the effectiveness of leadership and management development, what is taught on programmes and in the workplace, and its outcomes, is not very strong. There are well-documented tensions in introducing management and leadership theory into environments where uncertainty, turbulence and issues of inequality and power coexist. The literature of social work and social care is rich with critiques of the impact of managerialism and marketization on services. It is relatively scant, however, on how managers actually facilitate and promote more effective engagement of stakeholders in their day-to-day work. There is also insufficient knowledge in the field about social work managers pivotal but challenging role in improving relationships within and between the organizations working together to provide more seamless, responsive and integrated services. This calls for the identification and acquisition of concrete tools that managers can use to promote their own learning. There is also a need for purposive fostering of organizational cultures in which self-managed learning can thrive, particularly given the increasing complexity of how services are delivered. This book aims to start with some basics in this respect by giving attention to skills that managers require in everyday practice, but with our unique context in mind. Managers need a tripartite framework when it comes to personal effectiveness; one which incorporates skills, knowledge and values. You will find that the authors always discus skills in the context of organizational structure and culture and refer to the conditions that foster learning and innovation specific to social work and social care.

There are a number of methods that in the workplace can be used to help assess and evaluate your skills. One of the unique features of this book is the multi-source feedback tool offered by the authors from the outset. They assert that we cannot learn skills merely by reading about them, but that managers have to be active in seeking feedback from those with a real stake in management development. Throughout this book the authors refer to numerous techniques for obtaining regular feedback from team members and other professionals. The activities and tools offered are aimed at encouraging you to build this into your normal management repertoire. These take into account the significant shift in the power and status of service users and carers, from traditional recipients of professional wisdom and judgements to one of co-producers and co-providers of care.