Managing Residential Care analyses what is wrong and proposes how residential care can be managed well. It covers the economic and political contexts of residential care, the practicalities of managing care, and the roles of outside organisations, including inspection, local authorities, charities, private care companies and housing associations. Extended examples throughout the text demonstrate both how managers can succeed and how the powerful forces of mismanagement obstruct them. Managing Residential Care will be essential reading for residential care practitioners and managers, training officers and policy makers, and lecturers and students on social work and social care courses.