To many clinicians I suspect management is an anathema and has an air of mystique about it. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the complex world of management in psychiatric practice so as to debunk such ideas. It reflects changes where management and leadership skills for doctors have now taken on a degree of prominence. The book is comprised of 3 parts and 36 chapters.

Part 1 provides the theoretical overview: it describes mental health development within the wider National Health Service (NHS). It separately considers each country within the UK and encompasses political, funding and resource issues, mental health legislation and policy development.

Part 2 covers changes and conflicts. The chapters on change processes (especially the in vogue ‘Plan Do Study Act’ model), understanding systems, measurement of needs and quality improvement (‘Quality and quality governance is everyday business and work’) are vital for clinicians and impart solid theoretical knowledge that can be put into practice – so often change projects can appear to lack such theoretical underpinning and appear to be knee-jerk responses devised on the hoof. Revalidation, clinical audit (providing sage advice on a topic that can easily be poorly attended too), patient complaints and how to undertake mental health tribunals are also useful chapters.

Part 3 focuses on personal development. This part is pertinent for trainees and new consultants as it provides excellent guidance including an innovative chapter on compassionate care (caring for mental health service staff and the moral architecture of healthcare organisations and ‘emotional labour’ – new concepts I was unaware of). It covers the essential basics of chairing meetings, time management and presentation skills (who knew Aristotle still underpinned the art of speech-making used today!). An important chapter on stress and burnout will develop self-awareness about these issues that will inevitably touch many clinicians during a long career. The ‘surviving as a junior consultant’ chapter was erudite in its realistic advice.

The book is well edited in the sense of how well it flows considering so many contributors and how little, if any, repetition there is. A key theme elucidated is how management and leadership overlap but that by and large they are separate activities.

Some chapters may have benefited from having key learning points and resources summarised at the end. The chapter on getting the job you really want may have been more up to date had it discussed the now commonplace NHS jobs online application process (which sometimes specifically asks not to send an accompanying CV).

Given the ever-changing NHS landscape, management and leadership skills are intrinsic within a clinical career. This is a ‘must have’ book for all core and specialist psychiatric trainees and new consultants. For more experienced consultants, it will be an invaluable CPD resource. I fully concur with the editors who believe the relationship between personal skills and clinical management needs to become mainstream. Indeed, this book is so comprehensive it could potentially serve as the basis for an examination or accreditation as yet to be developed on this indispensable topic.