Written question WQ93407

All patients in Welsh hospitals receive the same high standard of care irrespective of their individual conditions or circumstances. These standards are monitored and evaluated regularly by health boards and the Welsh Government through our established reporting procedures.

For people with learning disabilities accessing hospital services, the key approach is to make the appropriate reasonable adjustments necessary for individuals to receive equitable treatment that meets their personal needs. This is a key principle within the Equality Act.

To help achieve this there are a number of specific additional processes and approaches in place. These include:

• Learning Disability Annual Health checks – that ensures early identification, intervention and prevention which are available to all individuals with a learning disability.

• A Once for Wales Health profile that enables people with a learning disability and their families to share relevant information and provide healthcare staff with key information to help them provide safe, and person-centred healthcare.

• The Care bundle - a series of interventions to ensure the safety and quality of care of people with a learning disability.

In addition, in April 2022 we introduced the Foundation Phase of the Paul Ridd Learning Disability Awareness Training Programme which provides all NHS staff in a public facing role with the training needed to understand, identify and make the reasonable adjustments necessary for people with learning disabilities to access these services.

At the last count (December 2023) over 55,000 staff had undertaken this training which complements the existing learning disability champions training offered within health boards. Health boards and hospitals are employing a growing number of Learning Disability Acute Liaison Nurses with work currently underway to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of these roles.

With reference to specific learning disability inpatient provision, our Learning Disability National Implementation and Assurance Group (LDNIAG) are overseeing delivery of the national recommendations from the 2020 Improving Care, Improving Lives review of adult learning disability inpatient provision in Wales and England. The aim of this work is to reduce the number of people with a learning disability in long stay hospital provision, reduce length of stay and maximise community care and support at home, or as close to home as possible.

This inpatient work is supported by our ongoing regular audits of the small number of patients accessing learning disability inpatient services. While these audits are not currently official, we are exploring how this data can be collected and published in line with national standards for data publication.