Agenda item

Elaine Carolan, Strategic Commissioner and Co-Chair of the Learning Disability Partnership Board, Lucy Hancock, Co-Chair of the Learning Disability Partnership Board, and Laura Westwood, Lead Commissioner attended to update the Board.

The Strategy was originally agreed in 2015 and had been refreshed. The Partnership was moving forward and work was on-going to produce an all-age Learning Disability Strategy. Lucy Hancock gave brief details of her role as Co-Chair and explained that the Board had a Preparing for Adulthood Group which was working to ensure that people with Learning Disabilities had better opportunities, especially around the difficult time of leaving childhood and becoming an adult. It was seen as a bonus that one of the Co-Chairs was a young person with learning disabilities and a Young Persons’ Reference Group was also going to be set up. The Learning Disability Board was working in tandem with the STP and the Staying Healthy Group and learning from those groups would feed into the Learning Disability planning work. The Board was also working with the Staying Healthy Group to look at ways to decrease the life expectancy gap of people with Learning Disability and the rest of the population.

In response to questions, various points were clarified:

·       Lucy explained that although she had been told various services such as Connections would help her, she had found that she wouldn’t have been in the position she was now without the help and support of her family, for example they were the ones who found her a college placement. However, she felt the situation was improving and people were now having a more positive transition experience

·       There were strong links between the Partnership Board and Health Services, especially through the Staying Healthy Sub-group which was attended by the Acute Trust and information was fed back to the Health and Care Trust. These links were important in addressing health issues as people with learning disabilities may have difficulty vocalising their problems. Primary Care had an important role to play and most GP practices had a register of patients with learning disabilities and provided a yearly check for them

·       It was recognised that the right people from children’s services needed to be involved with the Partnership Board and be available to help with the transition stage from Children to Adults services

·       To encourage more young people to contribute to the Partnership Board, the times of meetings were being considered, as the current day time meetings were not compatible with college attendance

·       The Supported Employment Team helped support people with a Learning Disability into employment but their criteria for accessing the service was quite tight and it was difficult to know how much support individuals would require; this meant that there was a limited number of people who could be helped at a time. A Work Options Group operated under the Partnership Board and it was hoped that more volunteering opportunities could be made available which would also help people gain skills and access employment. The Chairman suggested that he could write to District Councils to encourage them to help.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board:

a)     Noted the refreshed and updated Learning Disability Strategy; and

b)    Agreed that the Chairman should write to District Councils to encourage them to support volunteering opportunities for people with learning disabilities.