Trish Hafford-Letchfield - Social Care Management, Strategy and Business Planning

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For Ted, Katie, Mum, Dad, Anne and Uncle Albert

Having worked with a number of inspiring people throughout my career, most of what I have learnt or achieved is due to them. A special mention is given to just some of my colleagues for their unrelenting support and encouragement: Kate Leonard, Paul Dugmore, Priscilla Dunk, Steve Trevillion, Sharon Lambley, Jacky Grant, Jill Yates, Ann Flynn, Wendy Couchman, Justin McDermott, Diana Bourn and all my wonderful colleagues at Middlesex University. Apologies to those of you who I have inevitably but unwittingly left out. Thanks to Steve Jones at Jessica Kingsley for his patience and humour whilst writing this book.

I am grateful to those who have granted permission to reprint valuable materials. Every effort has been made to acknowledge the sources of this work. Any notifications of omissions or errors in acknowledgement are gratefully received. With thanks for permissions from:

Figure 2.1 The process for assessing need in the community

Figure 6.1 Institute of Public Care joint commissioning model for public care

Table 7.1 Contradictions in performance measurement

Figure 3.2 Building a business case

Figure 3.3 Top tips in undertaking equality impact assessments

Table 6.1 Commissioning at different levels

Figure 6.3 Charities Evaluation Services planning triangle

Professor Lyn Macdonald for allowing me to reprint information from her website for Chapter 10:

Families and Schools Together: A social intervention programme evaluated using RCTs

The title and contents of this book reflect a number of current key debates going on in social work and social care. They acknowledge the many tensions between management and professionals where the deployment of business sector principles within the environment of care are already well engrained. Over the last few years, I have had the privilege of teaching on a number of leadership and management programmes. Leadership and management education in social work and social care inevitably involves looking at the knowledge and skills that managers need in order to be effective in their organisations, and to become what Thompson (2003) refers to as an effective organisational operator (p.198). The introduction of market and, subsequently, business principles into care environments since the 1980s has meant that its associated language and terminology has deeply permeated current management speak. Even in my own experience as a manager I have found myself talking uncritically about quality and performance management issues and getting value for money or working in a sustainable way. Managers and staff I have worked with, however, have struggled with some of these concepts. This also reflects the lack of appropriate literature in this area, or a knowledge base about the strategic and business planning aspects of a social care managers role that speaks directly to her or his own experiences and learning needs. Whilst there needs to be a degree of ownership of managers of such speak in relation to strategy and business planning, we still have a long way to go to ease relations between government and local leadership, which enables managers really to engage comfortably with what they are being asked to implement on the ground.

Management is essentially a practical activity and particular aspects of social care make this role unique, setting it apart from other more traditional roles or other sectors. Managers continue to be dynamic in engaging with the debates about how best to manage services in what is a very challenging environment. This is the essence of professionalism and points to the need for a multi-layered approach to service development. Most managers do not become managers in a planned way and it would not be uncommon for even experienced managers to be reading more closely in hindsight about some of the issues outlined in this book for the first time. Recognising that preparation for management begins much earlier in an individuals life emphasises the need to recognise the value of the managers knowledge, skills and value base emerging from their prior experience of direct practice. This expertise should be valued as it can be shared across the networks we work within as well as sharing up and down the hierarchies in our organisations and provides a powerful means of building organisational knowledge and capital. No one would probably dispute that we need to get better at developing strategies in care services in a way that helps us plan for getting the most out of what we have to work with. This move is inevitable in the face of increasing demands and rising expectations for quality services.

There are already a growing number of well-written texts which offer a comprehensive analysis of social work and social care management. These provide robust critiques of the managerialist approaches that have subsequently developed with the advent of neoliberalism in public services (Clarke and Newman 1997). This book does not aim to reiterate or indeed challenge these important analyses. The specific aim of this book is to try to make the whole issue of business planning a more accessible and friendly process, and to acknowledge the values and ethics inherent to managing it in the care sector. In covering some of the theoretical concepts underpinning the effective management of care services, it also incorporates a how to approach around a range of different but, it is hoped, relevant topics. Therefore, I hope you find that it reflects some of the key critical debates and issues in social care, as well as offering very practical and helpful advice on how to tackle some of the everyday tasks involved in managing your team, service or organisation.