Learning Difficulty is where you have a diagnosis of something like ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia or even autism. It does not stop you learning or coping with normal everyday life but it can make things harder and may impact on your mental health and wellbeing.

A Learning Disability is clearly defined as a significantly reduced ability to understand complex information or learn new skills, a reduced ability to cope independently which started before adulthood and has a lasting effect on development.

There are set criteria for meeting a Learning Disability, and a person must meet all 3 to receive this label:

• Significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information and to learn new skills (impaired intelligence)
• A reduced ability to cope independently, i.e. impaired social /adaptive functioning
• The above started before adulthood and has a lasting effect on development.

The legal definition of a Learning disability can be found here in NICE guidance

 Keeping with the NHS guidance relates to the three areas:

• Lower intellectual ability
• Impairment of social or adaptive functioning
• Onset in childhood.

Anyone with a Learning Disability aged 14 year or above can access an Annual Health Check at your local GP practice. GP’s offer this as an additional service and it is not something that they have to do, although in Cheshire West these checks are available. Please check via the NHS App or with Practice if the person in your care has the Learning Disability code listed on their records.

If you believe someone in your care should be registered with the GP as having a Learning Disability and the practice disagree, you can ask for advice from the local community Learning Disability Team run by Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Trust on 01244397222 or email cwp.westcldt@nhs.net

 When I recently asked for feedback about your experiences of Annual Health Checks, concerns were raised about consistency and the quality of these checks. In the first instance, contact your local practice if you are unhappy about the Annual Health Check. However, there are several resources online to help explain what the checks should contain, and links are below which may help. These resources are also in ‘Easy Read’ for the patients themselves and Mencap have recently translated them into a variety of languages.

FROM MENCAP

Mencap launches new GP resources for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people with a learning disability | Mencap

https://www.mencap.org.uk/easyread/annual-health-checks

https://www.mencap.org.uk/advice-and-support/health/why-annual-health-checks-are-so-important-people-learning-disability

FROM THE NHS

Learning disabilities - Annual health checks - NHS www.nhs.uk

The most recent LeDeR report on the learning from avoidable deaths has noticed a slight improvement in the average life expectancy of those with a learning disability from 61.8 years to 62.9 years in 2022. If you would like to read the report, follow this link https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/leder for both the full and easy read options. One aspect that was raised in the report was the quality of the Annual Health Checks and a national audit will be undertaken soon to understand what we can learn from each other about improving these checks.

Learning Disability Register leaflet

NHS England have just published an information leaflet which was made by family carers, people with a learning disability, people from charities and NHS staff, about the GP (doctor) Learning Disability Register.

The Learning Disability Register leaflet helps people think about whether their child or someone they care for could be considered to have a learning disability. If so, they should be on their local GP practice’s Learning Disability Register, to help them get the help they need. There are plain English, easy read and accessible versions of the leaflet in the link above.

This information can be used by staff in GP practices, health professionals, schools and colleges and charities, as well as parents and carers of children who have a learning disability.

In the meantime, in Cheshire West, we are working on generating a forum for the staff who are delivering these checks so we can share good practice, let them know about any training on offer, circulate the most recent guidance on delivery of Annual Health Checks and feedback anything we receive from the Parent Carer Forum in relation to the checks.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any specific queries about the checks to tracy.millington@cheshireandmerseyside.nhs.uk

If you have any questions, please email us at: contact.pcfcwac@gmail.com or call 07900 840867

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