The report 'Time to Move on from Congregated Settings - A Strategy for Community Inclusion' proposes a new model of community support.

The report was concerned with all individuals living in larger congregated settings who have intellectual, physical, or sensory disabilities. For the purposes of this report, larger congregated settings were defined as living arrangements in which ten or more people share a single living unit or where the living arrangements are campus-based. This policy is now being implemented nationally for residential support in the mainstream community, where people with disabilities are supported to live ordinary lives in ordinary settings.

Individuals will transition to dispersed forms of housing in ordinary communities, which will be provided by housing authorities. Individuals will have access to mainstream community health and social care services, such as GPs, Public Health Nursing Services, Home Help, Primary Care Teams, and so on, just like any other citizen. Individuals will be given the assistance they require to live independently and as members of their local community. Congregated type settings are being phased out over a seven-year period.

Aims: A seven-year, phased national deinstitutionalisation programme for disabled people who have lived in segregated units of ten or more people, with appropriate support, to move into community-based housing.