Managing Children's Homes: Developing Effective Leadership in Small Organisations(Costs & Effectiveness of Services Children in Need)

Managing Children's Homes focuses on leadership, effective management, the allocation of resources, and ensuring positive outcomes for young people in residential care. The book develops an interdisciplinary understanding of what needs to be taken into account when establishing and maintaining good practice on behalf of young people living in children's homes. The authors explain the considerable variation in quality achieved by children's homes and how this relates to management style, working environment and staff structures. The skills and qualities that make effective managers of homes are explored. These, along with factors such as the provision of resources, are investigated to demonstrate how to attain a successful children's home environment and longer-term achievement for looked-after children. Based on innovative, DfES-funded, interdisciplinary research, this book will be essential reading for staff and managers in children's care homes and will also be of interest to students, policy-makers and directors of social services.

Table of Contents:
Dedication. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction and Background. 2. Who Lives and Works in Children's Homes? 3. Creating, Maintaining and Influencing a Staff Team. 4. Shaping and Maintaining the Role of Manager within the Context of the Wider Organisation. 5. Shaping Work with Young People. 6. What Does Leadership Look Like in Children's Homes? 7. What Resources Are Used, How Much Do These Cost, and How Are Costs Linked to Outcomes? 8. What Makes a Difference to Outcomes for Young People? 9. Conclusions and Implications. Appendix A: Research Methodology. Appendix B: Sample Models. References. Subject index. Author index.

About the Author :
Leslie Hicks is Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Lincoln. She specialises in the fields of services for children and adults, child protection and wellbeing, and social exclusion. Ian Gibbs is a Research Consultant at the Social Work Research and Development Unit at the University of York. His main area of research is looked after children, particularly those in residential care and foster care. Helen Weatherly is a Research Fellow at Centre for Health Economics, University of York. The focus of her research is on the economic evaluation of health and social care interventions. Sarah Byford is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and specialises in the economic evaluation of mental health and social care services.

Review :
This is a further contribution from the York University team who have added so significantly to our understanding of what matters in residential child care. The book focuses on the leadership role of the manage and ways in which resources are deployed to impact on care and outcomes for children... This volume recapitulates the message that each children's home is one part of the larger system of children's services and successful outcomes will require all the part to be working effectively together... This book will be a helpful and thought-provoking read for those working both inside and outside children's homes. Written by a multi-disciplinary research team, this new book examines the key issues of leadership, management and resources, and the ways that these relate to outcomes for young people living in residential care. Using innovative research methods, the book investigates the structure, processes and outcomes of residential child care...The book offers a comprehensive account of the research and concludes with a detailed discussion of the implications to its finding for policy, practice and training. This valuable book brings together specific research on what accounts for the differences between children's homes and how practice can be better supported...The manager's role is explored in five key areas: own role and identity; relation to staff; to young people as individuals and as a group; to networks outside of the home; and to their own organisation. This new book examines the key issues of leadership, management and resources, and the ways that these relate to outcomes for young people living in residential care. The book offers a comprehensive account of the research and concludes with a detailed discussion of the implications of its findings for policy,practice and training. The authors use the findings of a residential child care research initiative commissioned by the UK Department of Health to recommend policy and practice to leaders at small group homes for young people. Particular concerns include the views of young people in homes, leadership pitfalls, the use of resources and the role of manager within a larger organization.