Welfare Reform
In March 2025, a green paper called ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working’ was published by the government.
It proposed some changes to the disability benefits PIP, Universal Credit and ESA and lots of members were (and are) feeling worried about this.
Many people and organisations worked hard to share the impact of the suggested changes to the welfare system, so the government understands what is good or bad about them.
Learning Disability England Members worked together to share their opinions and experiences to go into the Consultation Response.
Below you can read a summary of what we all did together and Learning Disability England’s consultation response.
NHS 10 Year Plan
The government asked the public, experts, and NHS staff to share their experiences and ideas to help shape a new 10-year plan for the NHS.
Learning Disability England responded to both parts of the NHS consultation as an organisation, by sharing what members have said they need from the NHS to lead a good life.
This includes thoughts shared in two online session with members, including one with the 10 year plan team, and what we already knew from when the Health chapter of the Good Lives Framework was created.
Other actions to help members influence the 10 Year Plan included:
- Sharing information on how to get involved
- Helping the Department of Health and Social Care run a session for people with learning disabilities and autistic people
- Arranging a session with the 10 Year Plan team and the Health and Wellbeing Alliance
- Being part of the Partners Council
Supported Housing Act 2023
The government ran a consultation about the new Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. They wanted to hear people’s views on how to put the new law into action and how to create new rules for supported housing.
An Easy Read version of the consultation was made available, and more details are on the government website.
Supported housing is important to many Learning Disability England members, so we made sure their views were included in our response. We did this in several ways:
- Sharing updates on social media
- Sending emails to ask for views
- Making it the focus of our April Members’ Meeting
- Holding a focus group with members who live in supported housing and providers, in partnership with DLUHC
