By placing last year’s valuing people white Paper in a historical and political context, Daniel Marsden asks whether the lives of people with learning disabilities are really about to change fundamentally

The government’s new strategy for peo- ple with learning disability, Valuing People (DoH 2001a), has been broadly welcomed by the learning disability community for offering new impetus to the process of improv- ing people’s lives and modernising services. This article aims critically to explore the new White Paper in the context of social policy. Although space precludes a comprehensive analysis, the discussion will focus on two key questions: does Valuing People represent a radical departure in social policy for people with learning disabilities and does it have a solid ideological foundation on which to build practical approaches to improving people’s lives?