[3] Its general aim was a more cost-effective way of helping people with mental health problems and physical disabilities, by removing them from impersonal, often Victorian, institutions, and caring for them in their own homes.
In the 1960s Barbara Robb put together a series of accounts in a book called Sans Everything and she used this to launch a campaign to improve or else close long stay facilities.
Griffiths firmly believed that many of the problems facing the Welfare State were caused by the lack of strong effective leadership and management.
The Griffiths Report Proposed a solution to the issue of 'no-man's land' - the grey area between health and social services which included the long term or continuing care of dependent groups such as older people, the disabled and the mentally ill.
This was a companion paper to Working for Patients and shared the same general principles: The White Paper followed the main recommendations of the Griffiths Report but with two notable exceptions: It did however; identify six key objectives which differed slightly from Griffiths Report: These objectives were legislated for in the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990.
This situation raised some concerns when acts of violence were perpetrated against members of the public by a small minority of people who had previously been in psychiatric hospitals.
[citation needed] In January 1998, the then Labour Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, said the care in the community programme launched by the Conservatives had failed.
[10] BBC Panorama in 2011 filmed a fly-on-the-wall documentary at Winterbourne View, which was a private long-term hospital for people with learning disability.
The broadcast programme showed physical and verbal abuse of people, a culture of frustration and boredom, and lack of any structured treatment for the inpatients.
After this, health authorities promised to reduce the number of placements in large units where people were cared for inadequately, far from home, and on a long term basis.
In March 2015 Norman Lamb, the Minister of State for Care and Support launched a twelve-week consultation process on how the changes to services should be implemented.
[11] While welcomed by most, others saw progress as lamentably slow on the identified issues for what amounts to community care for people with learning disability and autism.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, on hearing the outlined plans of the health service on these proposed changes, said: ″Why can't we just get on and do it?