Learning Disability and Autism – resource hub

This is a resource hub for professionals working to transforming care for individuals with a learning disability, autism or both across the South East.

There are also a number of resources available on the national NHS England learning disability and autism pages.

On this page:

 

COVID 19 vaccination

All people with a learning disability have now been invited to have a COVID-19 vaccination at part of priority group 6. This is provided they are on the GP Learning Disability Register.

There are plenty of resources available to help the delivery of the vaccine in this group:

 

Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR)

People with a learning disability often have poorer physical and mental health than other people and may face barriers to accessing health and care to keep them healthy. Too many people with a learning disability are dying earlier than they should, many from things which could have been treated or prevented.

The learning from deaths of people with a learning disability (LeDeR) programme was set up as a service improvement programme to look at why people are dying and what we can do to change services locally and nationally to improve the health of people with a learning disability and reduce health inequalities. By finding out more about why people died we can understand what needs to be changed to make a difference to people’s lives.

 

New LeDeR website

The new LeDeR website and notification site was launched on the 25th May at www.leder.nhs.uk . This replaces the previous University of Bristol web pages and notification site, which has been decommissioned as we prepare to begin working with a new academic partner. The way in which a death is notified remains the same. If your website currently includes details of LeDeR, please review these new details and update any links or key information.

 

New LeDeR policy 2021

The move follows the introduction of a new policy for LeDeR, also in easy read. From the 1st June, there will also be a new process for reviewers to follow, new training and a new web platform for the LeDeR workforce. Over the next year the workforce will change and reviewers will work in teams so that no reviewer will work alone, everyone will have the time they need to do reviews and support to do them.

Under the new arrangements, all notifications of a person’s death will receive an initial review including talking to their family or people who knew them well, talking to their GP or looking at the GP records, and talking to at least one other person involved in the person’s care. Then, if a more detailed review is needed, a focused review will follow.

All people from a minority ethnic background will receive a focused review. Families can say if they think a focused review is needed.

 

Learning from Lives and Deaths People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People (LeDeR) – Information for general practice

This document is to let you know you about the Learning from Lives and Deaths – People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People (LeDeR) programme and how you might be asked to support it. It also explains the basis on which patient identifiable information can be shared with LeDeR review teams.

Your support is key in reducing premature mortality and improving health outcomes for people with a learning disability and autistic people.

Please distribute to appropriate staff within your practice for their information.

 

Further Information

To find out more, please visit the NHS website at: NHS England » Learning Disability Mortality (death) Review programme

 

Easy read support

Easy read is a method of presenting written information to assist those who have difficulty reading. This is widely used to communicate with people who have a learning disability, autism or both.

Creating important documents in easy read helps us meet our legal duty to communicate accessibly – vital given as of the 1st August 2016, all organisations that provide NHS care or adult social care are legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard.

If you work within a learning disability and autism team in a Transforming Care Partnership/ICB or elsewhere in the South East system, please contact lauren.hammond8@nhs.net should you require any support or advice regarding creating accessible/easy read documents.

 

Annual Health Checks

This communications toolkit was designed to aid increased awareness and understanding of the GP learning disability register, Annual Health Check and Summary Care Record with Additional Information – available to people with learning disabilities (including people with autism who also have a learning disability) so they Don’t Miss Out.Posters

 

Graphics

Facebook graphics:

Twitter graphics:

 

Guides and templates

Created by Mencap with NHS England’s support for people with a learning disability, their families and carers:

 

Summary Care Record with Additional Information (SCRAI)

Guidance for GPs to use SCR to make more information available across care settings is available on the NHS Digital website. Share this easy read patient leaflet explaining SCR AI.

 

National electronic Health check (Learning Disabilities) clinical template

This document is only a guide – providing an initial content summary and overview. The new National Electronic Health Check (Learning Disabilities) Clinical Template will be made available through the GP system.

 

Royal College of GPs (RCGP) step-by-step toolkit

The RCGP, in partnership with the Clinical Innovation and Research Centre, developed and published a step-by-step toolkit focussed on annual health checks for people with learning disabilities. The toolkit collects guidance and resources to help GPs, practice nurses and the primary administration team organise and perform quality AHCs on people with a learning disability.

Access this toolkit via the RCGP website.

 

Cervical screening

Cervical screening can detect early changes to avoid cervical cancer developing but the number of women attending for screening is falling year on year. However, fewer than 1 in 3 eligible females with a learning disability recieve cerviat

Here are some resources to support you to get the message out about this important cancer prevention initiative :

 

Resources

 

Flu vaccination

People with learning disabilities and their carers can have a free flu vaccination to help them stay well every winter.  Here is a an updated flu communications toolkit for 2021/22, which has been created by the national team.

You can download various other resources too:

 

Breast screening

In the UK, women with learning disabilities are the least likely to attend breast screening. You can help encourage more take up by using the resources below:

Graphics suitable for print (e.g. newsletters, magazines) and online (e.g. website, Facebook)

Suitable for Twitter

 

Additional resources:

Template Easy Read letters developed in Cornwall

Breast Cancer Care: Your breasts, your health

 

South East All-age Autism Strategy

After months of hard work and co-production with autistic people and their families across our region, the South East Learning Disability and Autism Team launched the South East All-age Autism Strategy in April 2021.

This strategy was been created to address gaps in the local provision of support for autistic people and their families, which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Although in the South East we have made significant improvements over the last few years, we are still witnessing increasing rates of referrals and a rising demand for autism services which has led to extensive waiting times for those seeking support.

In response to this, the Learning Disability and Autism Team spent several months gathering feedback and engaging with autistic people and their families in order to gain insight to form a robust strategy and map out a path to significant improvement in services.

As part of this engagement work, 10 priorities were agreed upon which give the strategy a clear focus. It is hoped that these priorities and their subsequent recommendations will set out the expectations on local health services across the region, ensuring both specialist and mainstream mental and physical health services more effectively meet the needs of autistic people and their families.

Read the South East All-age Autism Strategy below:

NHSE South East All-age Autism Strategy 21-26 – No Executive summary

NHSE South East All-age Autism Strategy 21-26 W Executive summary_ Easy read version