ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore critically the factors that have shaped changing policies for disabled and chronically sick people. It will provide a policy typology that sums up the changes over time and will then explore postwar developments in substantive policy for disabled people. It argues that although conceptually policy frameworks have become much more progressive, the impact of policy change has been much more limited. It highlights the fact that disability and poverty continue to be familiar realities and that a price being paid for more responsive and self-directed packages seems to be a narrowing of access to and conditionality underpinning disability support. This chapter will:
■ explore policy frameworks that help contextualise substantive discussion;
■ outline barriers to wholesale improvements in the lives of disabled people;
■ consider substantive policy changes in the areas of social care, social welfare, and the transition to adulthood;
■ argue that there is still a long way to go in affording enabling and equitable policy solutions for many disabled people.
