ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the model of service development and evaluation which emerged from the new collaborations, which may provide one way for service users, carers, and staff to be more actively involved in deciding what their service should be doing and in monitoring quality of provision. The implementation of the Staff Development Initiative was overseen by a Staff Development Initiative Management Group which had as part of its brief obtaining an evaluation of the project. The chapter outlines the experience of carrying out service evaluation in West Glamorgan and also describes how research which started with the intention of working closely with senior managers soon met with obstacles that frustrated this intention. When it was launched in 1983 the All-Wales Strategy for the Development of Services for Mentally Handicapped People was seen as a bold initiative calling for radical transformation of services for people with learning difficulties.
