How the tea is made; or, The scaling of 'everyday life' in changing services for 'people with learning disabilities'

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 in order 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 in order to be understood as realising ‘choice’ or ‘control’ as they are imagined in policy documents such as Valuing People?