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The recent UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides a powerful vision of the opportunities and support which should be available to intellectually disabled people and their families, based on a principled commitment to equal citizenship. When ratified nationally, this wide‐ranging Convention has the force of law. Nevertheless there is a long road to travel in securing its successful implementation. Looking across different aspects of the Convention (concerned for example with education, community living or employment) we can identify three common ‘building blocks’ for progress, focused respectively on strengthening self‐determination, promoting mainstream inclusion and providing personalised support. Experience in many countries of the ‘North’ suggests 12 key elements in national and local strategies to address these three requirements. It also points to the need for active partnership between civil society organisations, government and the current service system in which managers and other professional staff can play an important catalytic role. One priority is to invest in developing the capacity for the whole‐system leadership required to bring together the other 12 elements of strategy so as to create a virtuous spiral of positive change. We need to find effective ways of sharing experience across countries on how all this can best be done.

In April 1999, Somerset Health Authority and Somerset County Council launched the first fully integrated mental health service in England. The authors have evaluated this innovation and have already reported on progress on two occasions in this journal. This article gives data and conclusions for the final stage. In the next issue of MCC themes which will be important to the pursuance of integration in other localities will be drawn from the results presented and discussed in light of the available literature.

In 1999, a team from England, comprising self‐advocates, family members, leading professionals and policy‐makers, participated in the annual ‘Collaborative Academy’ of the US President's Committee on Mental Retardation. Fundamental to the Academy method is the commitment to work inclusively across different interests and engage directly with experiences. This paper identifies 41 lessons drawn by the team from US experience, including research‐ and practice‐based perspectives relevant to maximising progress in the context of the forthcoming national learning disability strategy in England. Focusing on the four main themes of learning from good stories, strengthening effective leadership, establishing inclusive policies and building better partnerships in policy‐making, action points are identified at local, regional and national levels. The paper also promotes the value of the Academy method itself as a vehicle for promoting strategy implementation, describing an enhanced role for selected universities in supporting informed change.

In April 1999, Somerset Health Authority and Somerset County Council launched the first fully integrated adult mental health service in England, made up of a joint commissioning board and an integrated services provider. Between January 1999 and June 2001, the authors evaluated the implementation of the integration by investigating the impact of this initiative on service users, their carers, staff members at the new trust, and senior managers and members from health and social services. In this, the second part of the presentation of the results from the evaluation, the main themes relevant to the pursuance of integration in other localities will be drawn out and discussed in light of the literature currently available.

This paper presents the second set of results from the evaluation of the implementation of joint commissioning and combined provision of mental health services in Somerset. Comparisons with baseline data are made and key emerging questions are identified.

The paper presents baseline results from the evaluation of the implementation of a joint commissioning and integrated service provision initiative in mental health services in England. Comparisons are made with published research, and key themes for the continuing evaluation are discussed. Finally, the paper reflects on some immediate challenges facing the new arrangements.

This paper is the first of two discussing the evaluation of the implementation of joint commissioning and integrated provision of mental health services in Somerset. The paper presents the methods of evaluation, and explores the potential limitations and environmental factors impacting on the effectiveness of data‐collection methods.

Findings and good practice are reported from a project promoting engagement of PCTs with the health experiences of people with learning disabilities. Project work was most successful where it linked into mainstream NHS priorities, using good information and specialists' expertise to support mainstream practitioners.