At a time of growing pressure on health and social care services, this book draws together contributions which highlight contemporary challenges for their management. Providing a range of contributions that draw on a Critical Management Studies perspective the book raises macro-level concerns with theory, demographics and economics on the one hand, as well as micro-level challenges of leadership, voice and engagement on the other. Rather than being an attempt to define the ‘wickedness’ of problems in this field, this book provides new insights designed to be of interest and value to researchers, students and managers. Contributions from international researchers explore four main topics: identifying contemporary challenges in health and social care; managing, leading and following; listening to silent voices in delivering change; and new methodologies for understanding care challenges. The concerns discussed in this volume are ‘wicked’ in so far as they are persistent, pernicious and beyond the curative abilities of any single organisation or profession. Such problems require collaboration but also new approaches to listening to those who suffer their effects. This book demonstrates such listening through its engagement with policy makers, leaders, followers, professions, patients, forgotten groups and silenced voices. Moreover, it considers how future research might be transformed so as to shine a more inclusive light on ‘wicked’ problems and their amelioration. This is a timely and engaging book that challenges you – the reader – to think again about how we should look at, engage with and support all those involved in health and social care.

The book analyses the developments of inter-organizational networks in the UK National Health Service during the New Labour period, combining empirical case studies from various policy arenas (clinical genetics, cancer networks, sexual health networks, and long term care) with a theoretically informed analysis.

Over the last thirty years, scholars of health care organizations have been searching for concepts and images to illuminate their underlying, and shifting, modes of organizing. Nowhere has this controversy been more intense than in the United Kingdom, given the long succession of top down reorganizations within the National Health Service (NHS) over the last thirty years. This book characterises the nature of key reforms - namely managed networks - introduced in the UK National Health Service during the New Labour period (1997-2010), combining rich empirical case material of such managed networks drawn from different health policy arenas (clinical genetics, cancer networks, sexual health networks, and long term care) with a theoretically informed analysis. The book makes three key contributions. Firstly, it argues that New Labour's reforms included an important network element consistent with underlying network governance ideas, specifying conditions of 'success' for these managed networks and exploring how much progress was empirically evident. Secondly, in order to conceptualise many of the complex health policy arenas studied, the book uses the concept of 'wicked problems': problematic situations with no obvious solutions, whose scope goes beyond any one agency, often with conflicting stakeholder interests, where there are major social and behavioural dimensions to be considered alongside clinical considerations. Thirdly, it makes a contribution to the expanding Foucauldian and governmentality-based literature on health care organizations, by retheorising organizational processes and policy developments which do not fit either professional dominance or NPM models from a governmentality perspective. From the empirical evidence gathered, the book argues that managed networks (as opposed to alternative governance modes of hierarchy or markets) may well be the most suitable governance mode in those many and expanding policy arenas characterised by 'wicked problems', and should be given more time to develop and reach their potential.

This book looks at police reform in Canada, arguing that no significant and sustainable reform can occur until steps are taken to answer the question of 'What exactly do we want police to do?' Adding challenge to this is that setting boundaries on what we expect the police to do requires grappling with the complex social problems we ask them to resolve. In public policy language, these are ‘wicked problems’ – social or cultural issues frequently seen as intractable. Authors Huey, Ferguson, and Schulenberg, all policing scholars, draw on a unique collection of data to explore these issues: over 20 years of research (2000– 2021) ranging from in-depth interviews, surveys, and field observations to document analysis and systematic social observation. Pooling this data generates a national-level picture of changes in the policing operational environment over these decades. This book focuses on four particular wicked problems (mental health, substance misuse, homelessness, missing persons) with causes and potential preventative treatments that lie primarily outside the criminal justice system and yet continue to be treated as 'policing problems.' Bringing about changes in public policing requires changes in public policy, and these are precisely the types of wicked problems that need innovative policy solutions. This book is suitable for a wide range of audiences within and outside Canada, including law enforcement and community leaders; scholars and policy experts who specialize in policing; students of criminal justice, organizations, and management; and citizen-consumers of information about policing.

As health systems all over the world not only recover from COVID-19, but learn to adapt to contexts of increasing uncertainty amidst persistent challenges, it is clear that systems thinking has never been needed more. Systems thinking is an approach to problem-solving that views problems as part of a wider dynamic system. It recognizes and prioritizes the understanding of linkages, relationships, interactions and interdependencies among the components of a system that give rise to the system’s observed behaviour. Systems thinking is a philosophical frame, and it can also be considered a method with its own tools. Identifying ways in the short and long-term which strengthen health systems is critical and applied systems thinking offers opportunities to do this. Systems thinking is often considered to be a field, a discipline, a philosophical approach and a set of tools and methods and can be defined as a way to understand and improve complex issues and situations. Despite broad consensus that systems thinking is important in health systems strengthening, it remains underutilized by researchers, public health practitioners and health decision makers. Further, a gap remains in the translation from concept to policy.

There has been a resurgent interest in relationship-based practice and the Care Act 2014 recognises the significance of effective working relationships with service users and carers to ensure a person-centred approach and effective participation and co-production. The Care Act advocates a strengths-based, whole family approach to assessment, care and support planning. Relationship, putting the person at the centre of the process, lies at the heart of this approach. This book is a practice-based exploration of relationship-based practice for social work with adults that looks at underpinning theory, legislation and policy drivers, value perspectives and skills in practice. The first part of the book introduces relationship-based practice and theoretical concepts, such as psycho-social and psycho-dynamically informed approaches to practice which highlight the complexities of relationships, at conscious and unconscious levels, both from the service user/carer perspective and the professional's perspective, where reflection and use of self are key; it critically explores the legislation and policy context. A conceptual model called IDEAS is introduced which provides a framework for the second part of the book, by breaking down the discussion into relevant practice issues. Here theory, skills and values are applied through case examples to illustrate the efficacy of relationship-based practice across a range of practice settings in social work with adult service users and carers.

Americans enjoy the finest healthcare delivery system in the world, but most people will tell you that we still have a long way to go. Far too frequently, patients leave the doctor's office or hospital feeling confused, angry, or neglected. Healthcare leaders recognize this problem, but in their focus on patients (and sometimes financials), they often overlook the true key to lasting patient loyalty and satisfaction: their employees. Patients Come Second shakes up the traditional healthcare model, arguing that in order to care for and retain patients, leaders must first create exceptional teams and find ways to engage nurses, administrative staff, physicians, supervisors, and even housekeeping staff and switchboard operators. By connecting employees' work with a higher purpose and equipping them with the tools to become leaders themselves, patient care can be dramatically transformed. And with continuing healthcare changes on the horizon and ever-rising pressure to acquire and keep patients, doing so now is more important than ever. Britt Berrett, president of an 898-bed hospital, and Paul Spiegelman, founder and CEO of a successful patient-experience company, are the perfect guides to the changes needed in healthcare leadership. With a rich combined experience in their field, they have filled each chapter with an abundance of engaging, insightful stories and write with a humor and friendliness that balances and enhances the urgency of their message.