ABSTRACT
Four principles underlay ‘care in the community’ as it was conceived in the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. These were: first, that the care people received was to be decided solely by their needs; second, that people were to be involved and consulted about these needs; third, that life incarcerated in institutions was inferior to life at home in the community and fourth, that statutory solutions to welfare problems were questionable. This final principle was linked to the first two in the sense that individuals were seen as best able to discern their own needs and preferences; and statutory institutions were seen as not well placed to decide for others what is in their best interests.
