Issues in Care Management

Abstract

Having considered the evolution of the thinking behind care management in community care it is important to document the responses. The prospect of care management has provoked a range of comments from practitioners, many critical. Remarks made to us include (of American case management): ‘It’s really just project management: it’s got nothing to do with professional practice’ and (of Kent’s scheme): ‘It reduces the importance of social work values, and means that they can now use untrained people to do what used to be done by social workers.’ The gist of some comments is that care management is an American import, picked up by the government and trendy right-wing local authorities. A widespread implication is that whatever the USA has to offer about professional social work it has badly organised social work services which should not be a model for Britain and only attract the government because of the role played in them by the private and non-profit sectors of the economy. Others, albeit a minority, do seem to feel that there is a tendency to inflexible bureaucratic behaviour in the current domination of social services departments, which might be eased by measures to loosen monopoly and increase choice.