Journal of Co-operative Studies 54(3), 33-44

Abstract

Personal assistance for disabled people is a field in which co-operatives have not yet had large-scale involvement in the UK. However, in other European countries such as Sweden and Norway there is a well-established co-operative sector providing personal assistance services. This paper draws on evidence from those contexts and on the author’s doctoral research. Conducted in the UK, the research used semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore how personal assistance provision could be improved both for disabled people and for those who work as personal assistants. The paper argues that there is significant potential for developing co-operatives in this field in the UK, which as yet is only starting to be realised in some small-scale experiments. There is also a potentially productive resonance between the Disabled People’s Movement concept of ‘independent living’ and the values and principles of the co-operative movement, which may suggest ways forward in challenging the political economics of austerity. However, the use of co-operative forms in this context is not without its limitations and dilemmas, and needs to be recognised as only a partial solution to disabling barriers that have deep material and ideological roots.

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