Building care management competence in services for people with learning disabilities

This paper examines care management arrangements in services for people with learning disabilities. Its perspective is informed by research on the long-term outcomes and costs of care in the community for people with learning disabilities (Cambridge el al., 1994) and by earlier experimental approaches to care management in Britain. Building on arguments developed by the author in a position paper in 1992 (Cambridge, 1992), the focus here shifts to the performance of mainstream care management in services for people with learning disabilities, with an identification and review of critical dimensions for reviewing competence. Lessons from earlier experimental and demonstration approaches are used to inform the analysis and to construct pointers for commissioners or providers who are looking to assess the effectiveness of care management arrangements in learning disability within their own service systems.