Care Management and the New Social Work: A Critical Analysis

Michael Sheppard Whiting and Birch, £16.95, pp 318 ISBN 1 871177 77 4 Care management is central to the new approach to social care initiated by the 1989 White Paper, Caring for People. It separates providers of services from a new category of “care managers,” who are responsible for identifying individuals' needs, tailoring services to meet these needs, and monitoring and reviewing the provision of services. Care management thus aims to overcome the traditional difficulties of coordinating disparate services and increase the effectiveness of community care; but it presents social work with what …