The beginning of the end of the great confinement: Institutional scandals and inquiries in the immediate post‐world war II era.

Background: The immediate post‐world war II era was a critical turning point in the history of learning disability in the United Kingdom and much of the global north. Most notably the gradual move away from institutional provision to a community‐oriented approach. While many diverse threads contributed to this change, a key influence was the slow, and incomplete, recognition that institutional provision was not an acceptable option. From the mid 1950s onward a number of commissions and inquiries considered the question of institutions both generally and in response to specific incidents and scandals. This paper traces the history and influence of this early discourse in the third quarter of the 20th century and locates it within the long history of scandals and abuse. Methods: Methods included a review of original documents from the period along with scholarly and grey literature review. Findings and Conclusions: The recurring scandals and public outcry that surrounded the long‐stay institutions of this period was a pivotal piece in spurring the move away from institutions towards community care. While significant progress was made deinstitutionalization remains a work in progress and institutions remain remarkably resilient despite a long and consistent history of failure. Accessible summary: After the second world war many people with learning disabilities were locked away in institutions and forgotten about.After the second world war some people started to speak out about how bad the institutions were and the government had a lot of inquiries (people looking at what happened or was going on) about abuse and other bad conditions.All of this attention finally led to more people being in the community than in institutions.Institutions still exist though and are still full of abuse and bad conditions. In the past a lot of words were used that we don't use anymore because they are hurtful and insulting. Because this is a paper about history there are a lot of those words in the paper so if you think that might upset you maybe have a friend or someone you trust read it with you. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]