How the tea is made; or, the scoping and scaling of ‘everyday life’ in changing services for ‘people with learning disabilities’

Accessible summary•  Learning disability day services have gone through a number of changes since they were set up in the 1960s. •  The changes have been guided by certain ‘values’ such as ‘inclusion’, ‘choice’ and ‘control’. •  The everyday lives of people using learning disability services have often been changed to help achieve things like ‘inclusion’, ‘choice’ and ‘control’. •  But it is also important to remember that what we mean by words like ‘‘inclusion’, ‘choice’ and ‘control’ might also have to change to reflect what people with learning disabilities actually do in their lives, or what they want to do.Summary In the late 20th century, the day services which had been set up for adults defined as having learning disabilities became understood as problematic because of the effects of segregation. The new solution became the adjustment of services to support a governmental form of personhood; a model of personhood defined by independence, the ability to make choices and be in control, to exercise rights and to take a place within the community and within society. This article tracks the technical changes to everyday life that underpinned this shift – specifically changes in tea making in Croydon’s day services since the late 1960s and techniques of person‐centred planning via widely used policy and guidance documents. Through deploying the analytical lenses of ‘scope’ and ‘scale’, two questions are pursued: What is understood as legitimising a person with learning disabilities’ choice? On what scale does choice have to take place to be understood as realising ‘choice’ or ‘control’ as they are imagined in policy documents such as Valuing People ?