The aims and methodology of the DECLOC project and findings from analysis of official statistics

Aim: This study aimed to document the number of people with disabilities living in residential care and in particular in institutional care within 28 countries in Europe and to analyse the costs and outcomes of the transition to community-based services in order to provide recommendations for agents in these countries to help bring about the change. Method: There were two phases to this study – the first collated existing official statistics in each country on the number of people with disabilities in residential care; the second analysed the existing body of knowledge on costs and outcomes of institutional and community based services to provide conclusions and recommendations.Results: This paper will present a summary of the official statistics collated in each country. Conclusions: More than 1.45 million people with disabilities in Europe still live in residential care with 70% of these living in services with over 30 places. Data was better on people with intellectual disabilities than for other user groups but figures collated are none-the-less an underestimation.