Inclusion or control? : commissioning and contracting services for people

This paper seeks to critically assess the impact made by the introduction of commissioning and contracting as a new culture of social care in learning disability services. It offers an evaluation of the growth in importance of the user as consumer. Does the commissioning and the contract process give users with learning disabilities a greater influence over their services and ultimately their lives? It is suggested that far from empowering people with learning disabilities to have a say in the services they want, the emerging culture of business contracts and new public management transfers power firmly back into the hands of professionals making the decisions. Social work practice is changing in response to major shifts in social trends and at the behest of market values. Traditional models are being rejected and the challenge for social work is to adapt itself to operate within a competency based paradigm.

British Journal of Learning Disabilities, Concannon, Liam December 2006, vol. 34, no. 4, p. 200-205