Homes of their own

Blurb

This book is about a specific community care initiative for children with learning difficulties. It describes the response of 29 district health authorities to the DHSS offer of central funding to set up small-scale homes in the community for children with learning difficulties, who were at the time either growing up in long-stay hospitals, or at risk of having to do so. The book attempts to pass on the lessons that have been learned in the course of the project. The chapters successively describe: the planning process in each district context; examine the new physical settings and their appropriateness for supporting the ordinary life intentions of the schemes; portray the young people and their life in their new homes; outline staffing and training arrangements and management issues. Detailed case studies of four of the schemes that seemed most completely to achieve the aims of the project are followed by the concluding chapter's appemot to summarise the main lessons of the initiative.