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<p>Improving the care and support for people with a learning disability or autism,
remains a government priority.</p><p>‘Building the Right Support’ is the national
plan in England to build community capacity to allow people with a learning disability
or autism to live and be supported well in their community. The NHS Long Term Plan
commits to implementing the ‘Building the Right Support’ plan in full.</p><p>Annual
health checks are available to patients on the general practitioner register who are
aged 14 years and over who have a learning disability. Health checks and resulting
action plans help to reduce recognised health inequalities. The number of people who
had an annual health check increased by 10% in 2017/18 compared with 2016/17, to 147,180.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to improve uptake of the existing annual health checks
so that at least 75% of those people with a learning disability who are eligible have
a health check each year.</p><p>NHS Improvement has introduced Learning Disability
Improvement Standards for NHS trusts in England to help ensure that trusts monitor
and review the care they provide to people with a learning disability or autism. Inclusion
of the improvement standards in the NHS Standard contract 2019/20, mandated by NHS
England for use by commissioners of all healthcare services except primary care, means
that all providers must have regard to the improvement standards.</p><p>NHS England
and NHS Digital, in partnership with patient and carer groups and other key stakeholders,
are working to develop a national ‘reasonable adjustment’ flag to indicate on electronic
patient records the reasonable adjustments which services can make to help people
with a learning disability access healthcare equitably.</p><p>We recently consulted
on proposals to introduce mandatory learning disability and autism awareness training
for all health and care staff, to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to deliver
safe, compassionate and informed care. We received over 5,000 responses and will respond
to the consultation in the coming months.</p>
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