This is an account of an attempt to improve co-ordination of services received by people with learning difficulties. With the guidance of a working party , the project has been designed and developed by members of a research advisory group. From the initial stages of the project this group shared the responsibility of deciding which particular problems to investigate and which disciplines to involve in undertaking the research. This report describes how and why the project started, what philosophy guided its development, how the aims were defined, what methods were used and what results are being achieved in more effective co-ordination and communication in the field of subnormality. This report contains the subjective assessment of the impact of this type of method of research on those who have a direct experience of it.