Community Care: A Scottish Perspective

Community Care is a major policy initiative in Scotland, involving an annual expenditure of nearly £750m by local authority social work departments and substantial investment by health and housing agencies. The principles of the policy that people should be cared for at home or in homely settings are broadly supported, but unease about implementation remains. Scotland has retained a greater ratio of long‐stay hospital provision, and dependence on residential solutions to community care needs remain high. The inception of the new Scottish Parliament in 1999 will bring new challenges and opportunities for the development of this key policy.