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People with learning disabilities are at risk of poor health and premature death. Due to these inequalities, NHS trusts are required to make reasonable adjustments to their care, such as longer appointment times, with the legal duty on them being “anticipatory”. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Secondary analysis of CQC acute hospital inspection reports asking the following research questions: Do CQC inspection reports mention people with learning disabilities? Where issues concerning people with learning disabilities are reported in CQC hospital inspection reports, what issues and reasonable adjustments are reported? Are there any relationships between comments made in the inspection reports and CQC ratings of the trusts?

In total, 29 of the 30 trust-wide inspection reports (97 per cent) and 58 of the 61 specific site reports (95 per cent) included at least one mention of people with learning disability/ies. Most comments about practices for people with learning disabilities were positive across all CQC inspection output types and across all CQC overall ratings, although the proportion of positive comments decreased and the proportion of negative comments increased as CQC ratings became less positive.

Overall the authors found that CQC inspection reports routinely contained some information regarding how well the hospitals were working for people with learning disabilities. The depth of information in reports varied across trusts, with the potential for CQC reports to more consistently report information collected during inspections.

The report updates and extends a report published by the Public Health England Learning Disabilities Observatory in 2015.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant that it became impossible for many individuals with intellectual disability to access specialist mental health support. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a set of guided self-help resources adapted for delivery on an outreach basis.

The use and impact of the resources were evaluated through: data about downloads and requests for printed materials; interviews with individuals who used the resources; webinars with organisations; family members and support workers who had delivered the resources and an online survey with individuals who had delivered the resources.

The resources had considerable reach, with over 12,555 printed copies requested from across Scotland. The materials were perceived to be relevant and useful, helping individuals to talk about difficulties and to be aware that others were facing similar challenges.

The findings highlight the potential long-term value of guided self-help resources to help promote well-being that can be delivered on an outreach basis by family members and social care organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the first 15 months of operation of an innovative specialist national public health observatory for intellectual disability.

The paper provides a narrative account of aims and achievements of the service.

In the first 15 months of operation the observatory has: made available to those involved in commissioning health and social care services, a wealth of information on the health needs of people with intellectual disabilities; identified specific improvements that could viably be made to increase the quality of future information; and begun working with local agencies to support them in making the best use of the available information.

People with intellectual disabilities experience significant health inequalities. This paper describes an innovative approach to helping local agencies make the best use of available information in order to commission services that may reduce these inequalities.

Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) are required for every local authority in England, and should contain information to allow for strategic health and wellbeing planning for the local population, including disabled people. A 2013 analysis of JSNAs showed that JSNAs were not routinely including information on the numbers and health needs of people with learning disabilities, particularly children. The purpose of this paper is to compare the information included in 2013 and 2014 JSNAs.

JSNAs for 141 local authorities in England were sought. Local authorities were contacted when JSNAs were not initially found online. All 137 JSNAs found were analysed for mentions and specific sections concerning people with learning disabilities, and content analysed concerning the specific information they contained.

In total, 72 per cent of JSNAs mentioned people with learning disabilities (vs 82 per cent in 2013); 24 per cent mentioned children (vs 39 per cent in 2013) and 72 per cent mentioned adults (vs 81 per cent in 2013). Overall, 13 per cent of JSNAs included a section on children with learning disabilities (vs 9 per cent in 2013), 65 per cent included a section on adults (vs 48 per cent in 2013) and 11 per cent included a section on older adults (vs 8 per cent in the 2013). More JSNAs contained information on current and projected future populations, health needs, social context and service usage concerning adults with learning disabilities compared to children. There was large regional variation in all these indicators.

Further work is needed for JSNAs to contain sufficient information on people with learning disabilities to allow for strategic planning, and for JSNAs to be accessible to the public.