The policy construct behind community care

Abstract

This article discusses how, while the concept of community has long been an intrinsic part of policy rhetoric for people with intellectual disabilities, its meaning is so open to differing interpretations that its policy manifestation has taken on a number of different guises. To understand the policy approach to community, it briefly considers the definition and nature of community and then considers how public policy in England (the term intellectual disability is used in this article for editorial requirements, though national policy in England uses the term learning disability) has interpreted and implemented a community aspiration. Community is, by definition, a cultural phenomenon and therefore by locating this article around one country (albeit a relatively multicultural one), this article needs to be understood as illustrative rather than definitive. It considers how both specialist learning disability policy and ‘mainstream’ public policy have and have not managed to bridge the divide between each other and the impact this has had on achieving community for people with intellectual disabilities. The article concludes by considering some lessons from English experience on how public policy and practice interventions might best help to promote the concept of community for people with intellectual disability.