'Community care: agenda for action'

Following his review into NHS management during the early 1980s, Sir Roy Griffiths was asked to examine the development of community care.

Griffiths observed that the lack of success and development of community care was down to the lack of leadership and responsibility, describing community care as 'everybody's distant cousin but nobody's baby'.

He also noted that money was available from the centre to those requiring residential care, but not for community care services. This created a perverse incentive.

Griffiths ultimately recommended that local authorities should hold the budget for care services across the community (ie hold the budget for both residential and community care), as well as managing and assessing what services were required. Local authorities could then purchase appropriate care packages from a range of providers. It was thought that, if local authorities were responsible for the budget, they would make a more realistic assessment as to whether someone needed residential care or community care.