NHS England
HSSIB recommends that NHS England develops and issues learning disability liaison nursing service best practice and workforce guidance to all acute hospitals. This is to help local decision making about specialist learning disability provision and enable appropriate support for people with a learning disability and the staff who care for them.
As part of a continued investment in the Learning Disability Nursing profession, via the national ‘All- England plan for Learning Disability Nursing’, a dedicated programme of work will be delivered to strengthen the role and function of learning disability liaison nursing within acute hospitals.
The outputs from this work will see the production of a competency framework for Acute Liaison Nurses which will be issued to all NHS acute hospitals/trusts.
In addition, a toolkit will be produced for acute trusts, which will include training materials and best practice stories in relation to acute liaison nursing and working in partnership with local stakeholders and people with lived experience to help inform local service design and delivery.
NHS England will ensure this guidance is disseminated across all NHS acute hospitals/trusts.
Response received on 2 February 2024.
NHS England
HSSIB recommends that NHS England ensures that the national learning disability improvement standards annual benchmarking survey for the care of people with a learning disability is continued for acute hospitals in order to help assure that local population needs are met.
In 2018 NHS Improvement in partnership with NHS trusts and people with lived experience, developed and published the Learning Disability Improvement Standards for NHS trusts.
The standards provide a structured framework to reduce unwarranted variations in patient experience and outcomes, across NHS services. The standards are based on metrics arising from several statutes and key national policies and require NHS trusts to measure compliance and where required, implement a range of improvement measures.
The data and learning from the standards are collected annually and supported via a comprehensive benchmarking exercise across all NHS trusts. This enables NHS trusts to identify both areas where improvements are required in addition to exemplars in service delivery.
The standards serve a vital function in both understanding and assuring local population needs and in response to the recommendation, NHS England will deliver the national learning disability improvement standards annual benchmarking surveys in 2024/25.
Response received on 2 February 2024.
NHS England
HSSIB recommends that the NHS England commissions the development and dissemination of guidance on the practical assessment of the mental capacity of people with a learning disability in acute hospitals. This is to ensure that appropriate decisions are made about the person’s care.
NHS England will develop and share guidance for health care staff on how to assess the mental capacity for people with a learning disability who are being cared for in an acute hospital setting.
Response received on 2 February 2024.
NHS England
HSSIB recommends that NHS England, with support from key stakeholders including the Professional Record Standards Body, works collaboratively to develop and publish a set of guidelines on information to be included in a health and care passport (which could be paper based, digital, or both) for people with a learning disability with consideration of the reasonable adjustments that people may need. This is to ensure the most current and accurate information about reasonable adjustments to the person’s care is accessible when and wherever it is needed.
We have established a national task and finish group with representatives from Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), NHS trusts and people with lived experience of learning disability and autism in order to create a template health and care passport with accompanying guidance for ICBs to support implementation. The passport template is based on the About Me standard, from the Professional Records Standards Body.
The passport is designed to complement information held on a patient care record’s Reasonable Adjustment Digital flag. There are three stated aims for the guidance:
- Improve confidence in health and care passports by clinicians and other health and care professionals.
- Improve use of health and care passports by people with a learning disability and autistic people.
- Improve the “portability” of health and care passports so that if an individual needs to access health and care outside of their home area the document is recognised and utilised.
Response received on 2 February 2024.