First published in 1998, This timely book describes the challenges that need to be met in bringing together health and social services into a partnership to create effective and responsive services. It presents the reader with both conceptual frameworks and practical examples on how change can be managed and the momentum maintained towards the development of a quality service. The authors present practical examples and reflect on what worked and what was not successful. Over twenty writers (staff and managers, senior and junior, qualified and unqualified) describe focused work in particular areas which will be of interest to any service for this user group. Throughout, the emphasis is on how to deliver an accessible good quality service and how this can be safeguarded in the future. Fifty years after the establishment of the NHS, and nearly twenty five years since the establishment of British Social Services departments, this book articulates a modern, practical and principled vision of community based services to vulnerable people.