Book review: Managing children's homes: Developing effective leadership in small organisations. Leslie Hicks, Ian Gibbs, Helen Weatherly and Sarah Byford.

This book details research which aimed to identify the ways in which the managers of effective residential homes work. The research involved the collection of quantitative data from 45 homes in England and Wales, 30 homes from the local authority and 15 homes based in the independent sector. It looked at managers' roles, as well as providing a consideration of resource use and leadership style. The research was motivated in part by the fact that previous research into this area, whilst highlighting significant variation in standards of practice, did not identify clearly those characteristics of managers that contributed to effective leadership. As such, the research upon which the book is based outlines the relationship between structure, process and outcomes.