Title: Reclaiming social care: Adults with learning disabilities seizing opportunities in the shift from day services to community lives
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: This study is about the ways in which people with learning disabilities and their allies are managing change in their social care, support and learning opportunities. A transformation is taking place in the UK (echoed elsewhere) in which many more disabled people are now living independently, as part of a broader move towards social care provision that is personalised and within the individual's control. Meanwhile, there have been significant cuts to local authority budgets, with day centres, adult education provision and other services closing or limiting availability. While the move from institutional funding to personal budgets in adult social services is offering disabled people the chance to gain more independence, arrange support, and take control over their life, this is a real challenge for people with learning disabilities. Members of this group are less likely to report that this has been a positive change for them; they experience more uncertainty over the changing sector in which day services are not being adequately replaced by alternatives. In this new landscape, there is some local evidence of people with learning disabilities (and their families and allies) creating new initiatives: innovative forms of peer-led support, including 'friendship circles', to provide support, learn and share knowledge, make and meet friends as well as collective pooling of personal budgets to do something bigger, such as hiring out a former day centre for activities. However, wider evidence of these groups and the broader impacts of the changing landscape on people with learning disabilities is lacking. The proposed research seeks to address this gap in knowledge by examining how people with learning disabilities are responding in proactive ways to day service changes. It will explore how they are managing to participate in community settings and creating new forms of collective peer-led support. It will examine the informal, lifelong and community learning involved in the development of these, what we call, 'self-build networks'. The researchers will undertake, for the first time, a series of detailed area-based case-studies of learning disability support landscapes across England and Scotland including interviews and observation. This will involve looking in-depth at local peer-led networks to identify how they are organised, supported and funded, their activities and connections, and their opportunities and challenges for expansion. The project will also establish an online resource to document the findings from these studies including images and short films to provide information and inspiration for other self-build networks. The project outcomes will enhance the fledgling network of self-build networks across the UK through a series of activities which will inform the future development of this emergent and important form of social care and informal learning. The activities will also facilitate connections and peer learning amongst often very locally-based networks, and through active engagement with local and national stakeholders, including local authorities, voluntary organisations, self-advocacy groups, colleges and private sector care providers.


Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH