ABSTRACT
Community care, as noted in the introductory chapter, is an ambiguous concept. It must be grasped historically; policies pertaining to community care may formally reach back to the mid-twentieth century, but policies relating to community care also boast a longer historical life, concerned with the care of marginalised and disabled groups. Indeed, the term’s origins are somewhat hazy, with general references by the Local Government Board to ‘more homely accommodation’ than the workhouse, and to an overt community care policy in 1946 (Walker, 1982). Yet the issues and policies for the discrete groups emerge much earlier, in a broader context of‘social policy’; such issues need closer examination.
