New book : Leading Good Care: the task, heart and art of managing social care by John Burton

Jessica Kingsley Publishers have given us prior notice of John Burton’s forthcoming book Leading Good Care: the task, heart and art of managing social care due to be published on February 15th, 2015. John is a regular contributor of articles to the goodenoughcaring  Journal. This book will be reviewed in the June 2015 issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal.

Comments from readers who have previewed the book include :

‘This book wants reading for several reasons. It is a book from the heart and highly readable. It identifies straightforwardly, matter-of-factly and scathingly the mindless, blinkered and harmful bureaucracy which has infected and distorted the social and health care system. Yet, in the face of these identified evils, it cleaves to optimism and independence of thought throughout and a determination that things can, and must, change. It discusses systems and ideas, but is written by an author with a detailed practical knowledge of care and who uses, throughout the book, care settings to illustrate in depth the issues as played out in the real world. Above all, this book challenges managers to break out of the vicious circle within which they can all too easily become enmired and ultimately, to lead good care.’ 

Michael Mandelstam, author of How We Treat the Sick: Neglect and Abuse in our Health Services

‘If you want to step up to leadership, and to lead good care, this book will help you do just that. It’s borne of long experience and a passionate belief in the difference good leadership can make. So if you want to transform people’s lives, start here.

From the foreword by Debbie Sorkin, National Director of Systems Leadership, the Leadership Centre

‘Leaving bureaucracy and compliance in its wake, John Burton takes the book’s reader on a journey to leadership both as a role and as an aspiration… With sobering references to the health and social care scandals of Cornwall, Staffordshire and Winterbourne View, and more recently the Savile debacle, John exposes the myth that managers were principally to blame by showing how there are wider systemic failings that leave most managers believing that they are powerless to take a stand and simply doing as they are told… With compassion entering the social care vocabulary again, John’s book is a timely inspiration for managers to return to humanity and core tasks with confidence and to lead their services to real and meaningful excellence.’ 

Philip Nightingale, Registered Social Care Manager

For more details about the John Burton’s new book go to http://www.jkp.com/uk/leading-good-care.html

This news item first appeared on December 3rd, 2014 on the goodenoughcaring.com homepage   at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com