Community care

Abstract

This chapter aims to set the experiences which are explored in Part II of the book in the context of the development of government policies on community care. It looks in particular at the way that government policies in Britain have affected the services available to disabled people, placing these in a wider social context. The chapter begins to challenge some of the key assumptions underlying community care policy and practice, thereby also setting the scene for the account of the independent living movement in Chapter 2, and the analysis of the issue of informal carers in Chapter 3.