The learning disability improvement standards for NHS trusts (June 2018)

Summary

People with learning disabilities, autism or both and their families and carers should be able to expect high quality care across all services provided by the NHS. They should receive treatment, care and support that are safe and personalised and have the same access to services and outcomes as their non-disabled peers. But we know some people with learning disabilities, autism or both encounter difficulties when accessing NHS services and can have much poorer experiences than the general population.

Several inquiries and investigations have found that some NHS trusts and foundation trusts are failing to adequately respect and protect people’s rights, with devastating consequences for them and their families. Also, skills deficits in the NHS workforce mean people’s needs are sometimes misunderstood or responded to inappropriately. As a result of these failings, people with learning disabilities, autism or both are at risk of preventable, premature death and a grossly impoverished quality of life.

With system partners, NHS Improvement, have developed four standards that trusts need to meet; doing so identifies them as delivering high quality services for people with learning disabilities, autism or both. These standards are supplemented by improvement measures or actions that trusts are expected to take to make sure they meet the standards and deliver the outcomes that people with learning disabilities, autism or both and their families expect and deserve.

These four standards are:

1. respecting and protecting rights

2. inclusion and engagement

3. workforce

4. specialist learning disability services.