This work from the Personal Social Services Research Unit looks back to the early stages of community care, comparing them with today's emerging policy with a view to improving community care still further. The book describes the first stages of the local development of the community care policy reforms laid out in the 1989 Caring for People white paper and the subsequent 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. It spans the period between the mid-80s, when the policy initially began to crystallize, and the beginning of 1993, when the reforms were formally implemented.