Health Services Investigations Body (HSIB) Releases Ground-breaking Report on Caring for Adults with Learning Disabilities in Acute Hospitals
NHS Benchmarking Network are pleased to be involved in this important investigation as the providers of the NHS England Learning Disability Improvement Standards Benchmarking Project. This data collection has been designed to understand the extent of organisational compliance with the NHSE Learning Disability Improvement Standards and identify improvement opportunities.
The Network are proud of the incredible amount of insight available for providers and systems through this project and our broader developments around mental health, learning disabilities and autism. Our ambition through all of our work is drive improvements in patient outcomes, raise health standards and deliver quality health and care services through data excellence, benchmarking and sharing of innovation.
Key findings from insight from the LDIS Project include:
The health and care system is not always designed to effectively care for people with a learning disability.
People with a learning disability who are admitted to an acute hospital are often cared for by staff without specialist training, skills and experience in working with people with a learning disability. These staff often have limited support and are unable to take the time they would like to meet the person’s needs.
There is no standard model or national guidance for an acute learning disability liaison service (that is, teams that are specifically trained in caring for people with a learning disability). Consequently, there is variation in how these services are funded, their availability, the size of teams and what they are expected to do.
Staff in acute hospitals may lack confidence and support in assessing the mental capacity of people with a learning disability, in line with the Mental Capacity Act (2005).
There is no national shared system with a single point of access for storing and managing information about the needs of people with a learning disability and the reasonable adjustments required for each individual.
Current mechanisms for sharing information about a person – such as ‘care passports’ (a document that gives staff helpful information about the person’s health and social needs, including their preferred method of communication, likes and dislikes) and alert flags (a way to highlight key information to staff) on the electronic patient record – can be unreliable. Instead, information is often gathered from friends and family.
Evidence exists that people with a learning disability experience health inequities. Long-held societal beliefs about the abilities of people with a learning disability may influence the provision of and decisions made around their care
The quality of learning disability services is currently monitored via the Learning Disability Improvement Standards annual benchmarking survey which is funded until the end of 2023/24. Decisions on future years have yet to be made.
Round 5 of the LDIS Project includes requests for providers to share findings with Integrated Care Boards. Particular recommendations for Integrated Care Boards from the HSIB report include:
Integrated Care Boards to work with acute hospitals to share good practice and assure they meet the national learning disability improvement standards.
Integrated Care Boards to develop and use communities of practice (‘networks’) for acute learning disability staff across the integrated care system area, with the aim of providing peer support and sharing learning to support service improvement.
To read the full HBIS report click here
To find out more about the NHS England Learning Disability Improvement Standards Project click here