Agenda item

9.1

The Board received a report providing an update on the LeDeR Programme – Learning from Lives & Deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people, as requested by the Board in July 2022.

9.2

Heather Burns, Deputy Director of the Mental Health Team, NHS Sheffield presented the report. She explained that the physical health strategy aimed to improve access to healthcare for people with learning disabilities and to reduce the mortality gap for preventable ill health. The report also detailed how the Strategy was being co-produced and work had been done with Sheffield Voices in Summer 2022 to ask for their experiences. There were positive experiences with health services and people had been treated well, including reasonable adjustments for appointments and easy read materials. However, people also described a lack of understanding of a learning disability and autistic people said that they struggled to access healthcare. Concerns were also raised about health professionals’ ability to communicate with people and involve them. Physical access for appointments was also a problem, e.g. if they were using a wheelchair. Heather Burns outlined other things that had been heard during the exercise, including examples of empathy and people in health settings getting to know people as individuals. People with learning disabilities did find the telephone system difficult. Discharge from hospital was also difficult for some people.

9.3

In terms of what the Health and Wellbeing Board could do to help, it was suggested that partner organisations could provide an update to the Board about what they were achieving to improve access and to help front line staff and understand people’s needs. It was also suggested that the Board have a health inequalities champion and that the Board asked how any report or presentation it received applied to people with learning disabilities.

9.4

Members of the Board discussed the issues raised in the update. It was considered that partners did need to respond to the challenge and that the Board should take up the suggestions made, including an annual update as part of the annual accountability framework. It was thought that people’s experience of health services should be a focus as well as access to healthcare.

9.5

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals had made additional investment in appointing two new members of staff for learning disabilities and autism and support for an individual to join the learning disabilities and autism consultant development programme. The Trust had established a new group which was to develop an action plan to improve care for patients with learning disabilities and autism, which it was hoped would make a difference for people.

9.6

It was important to think about where people were able to get support and bringing services to people so they would make a difference.  More explicit consideration was needed of people, particularly autistic people who had not been identified as such. There was a pilot of annual health check for 100 people and that would help to provide more information on some of those issues. It was important to ask people with lived experience before any strategy was considered by the Board.

9.7

The work done by the teams involved was widely praised and supported by the Board. It was suggested that actions were co-ordinated through the autism and learning disability partnership boards, so actions could progress and were joined up. It was also important to consider other wider aspects of people’s lives, as well as health such as employment for people with a learning disability or autism.

9.8

Healthwatch had done a piece of work using art with some profoundly disabled people for them to have a voice and it was suggested that the presentation might be shared with members of the Board

9.9

The Health & Wellbeing Board agreed:

1.    To note the report and discussion thereon.

2.    To progress the suggested actions as outlined in paragraph 9.3 above and in relation to partner organisations giving an update to the Board about what they were achieving to improve access and to help front line staff to understand people’s needs; a health inequalities champion; and any future reports to the Board including consideration of how an issue applied to people with learning disabilities and autism.