Whose Community Is It Anyway?

Author: Simon Duffy

After a long struggle government seems to have recognised the importance of independent living and the need for Centres for Independent Living. However, in practice local government and the NHS are often trapped in commissioning practices which undermine real community development. This paper offers a way out of this trap.

In outline the report describes a set of solutions for commissioners and local communities:

1. If self-directed support were implemented correctly then it is local people who would shape where and how they get support to manage their own support. This would bring an end to the inappropriate out-sourcing of Centres for Independent Living to organisation that are not rooted in local communities.
2. Commissioners should be thinking about Community Sourcing - working with local people to develop appropriate solutions and ensure money, intelligence and leadership is invested in the community.
3. Local organisations need to have the confidence to articulate the rights of local people and must collaborate to ensure that the welfare state and local services are protected and enhanced.

It is time to move away from the days of puppet communities and privatisation - local people in Doncaster are showing how this can be done.

Read and download the free pdf in your browser here.

The publisher is the Centre for Welfare Reform.

Whose Community Is It Anyway? © Simon Duffy 2013.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.