In May 1985, five young men aged between 18 and 21 moved out of Brockhall Hospital (a long stay hospital for people with learning difficulties) to take up the tenancy of their own home in Blackburn. They moved with 9.5 whole-time equivalent health service staff to help them to learn to live in the community. In 1986 they began a special needs course at Blackburn College. This report is an attempt to evaluate the quality of life for these men when they had been living outside the hospital for two years.