ABSTRACT
When the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) issued its Care in the Community Circular in 1983, community care was a much less clearly defined or prescribed social or health care option than it is today. The 1983 Circular introduced new arrangements for health authorities to transfer funds to local authorities and voluntary organisations in order to stimulate the movement of hospital residents to the community. In seeking general and transferable lessons for the development of community care and the rundown or closure of long-stay hospitals, the DHSS chose to cover a cross-section of traditional client groups. Applications for support under the programme had to address a number of criteria laid down by the DHSS. Demonstration and revelation were fundamental to the programme. Ministers wished to encourage a programme of pilot projects to explore and evaluate different approaches to moving people and resources into the community.
