It’s official: self-directed support is making people happier with their lives. Indeed, in Control, the model for personalised funding, has proved so successful in pilot schemes that many believe that it is just a matter of time before the new system goes mainstream. Thelma Agnew reports

This isn’t the first time an initiative has been developed with the aim of giving people with learning disabilities more control over their lives. But the hopes being raised by self-directed support – the whole system model of social care developed by the in Control partnership – are sky high.