Introduction

In this chapter, we identify the range of social policy fields in which lifelong learning policy for people with learning difficulties is forged and the discourses both of lifelong learning and learning difficulty that underpin them. We also focus on the range of agencies involved in delivery of services and the ethos of these services. In addition to our analysis of official policy documents, we draw on interviews with key informants, who provide insight into how policies work out in practice, sometimes being aligned with original policy intentions and sometimes being subverted or transformed. In the era of ‘joined-up policy’ (Riddell and Tett, 2001: forthcoming), it is evident that, although the will may be there for policies to reinforce each other, in reality they often pull in different directions. We explore some of these tensions and the consequences for service users.

Community care policy and lifelong learning

Community care policy provides the central backdrop against which lifelong learning policies for people with learning difficulties have developed. We therefore briefly summarise the broad strategy before exploring social workers’ perspectives on the nature of lifelong services that they offer. The post-war decades saw an expansion in the number of people with learning difficulties living in residential settings, where they experienced a form of warehousing removed from the mainstream community. Following a number of well-publicised cases of cruelty and exploitation of the inhabitants of such institutions, the justification for the lifetime incarceration of people who had committed no crime was questioned. In addition, there were concerns about the significant amount of health service resource that was tied up in such facilities. The White Paper Caring for people: Community care in the next decade and beyond (Secretaries of State for Health, Social Security, Wales and Scotland, 1989) incorporated most of the proposals of the Griffiths Report (1988) and set the framework for a particular model of community care. The key elements were:

• • to encourage the development of services to help people to live in their own homes wherever possible;

• • to give high priority to the needs of carers;

• • to establish proper assessment of need and good case management;

• • to promote the development of a strong independent sector along with good quality public services;

• • to clarify the roles of the various agencies and improve their accountability;

• • to introduce a new system of funding for community care.