Richard Whipp is Professor at Cardiff Business School, UK and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University UK. His previous publications include Innovation and the Auto Industry, Patterns of Labour, and Managing Change for Competitive Success. His current research centres on the temporal aspects of organizations. He recently completed three years as the chair of the British Academy of Management, and has also served as Academic Advisor to the Research Liaison Group, UK Department of Health. Ian Kirkpatrick is Senior Lecturer in Organization Behaviour at Leeds University Business School, UK. He has conducted various projects on management in public services and his current research interests are mainly in the area of management and employment change in public organizations and professional services firms. His book publications include: The Politics of Quality in the Public Sector and The New Managerialism and Public Service Professions. Martin Kitchener is Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA. In 1999 he was awarded a Harkness Research Fellowship at the University of California Berkeley to research academic health center mergers and systems of professional work control. He has studied institutional dynamics in the home care and ursing homes fields of the US long-term care industry, and is currently directing a Federal government-funded research project on the development of personal assistance programs for the disabled.

• Introduction Understanding the External Management of Children's Homes The Study Strategy and Implementation The Management of Child Placement Line Management Managing and Developing Staff Monitoring and Control The Management of the External Residential Placements Conclusion Appendices Bibliography