“Data alone will not reduce health inequalities. It must lead to action.”
The Co-chair Member Representatives of Learning Disability England have made a statement on the latest (and last) report from the LeDeR programme
Read this statement in easy read here
Gary Bourlet, Membership and Engagement Lead – “When people get the right care and treatment they live happier, longer, healthier lives. People need to work together to create a national strategy and then we need to hold people accountable for making the action happen.”
Learning Disability England members are worried that ending the national LeDeR reports could make people with learning disabilities and autistic people’s lives and deaths even easier to ignore and harder to learn from.
While the Government has announced a new patient-level dataset, it is not clear how this information will be used to effectively identify every person who has a learning disability and drive improvement. As well as how progress will be measured, and importantly, who will be accountable for acting on what it shows.
Data alone will not reduce health inequalities. It must lead to action. That is why Learning Disability England members continue to call for a dedicated national health strategy for people with learning disabilities, as set out in their open letter signed by over 1, 700 people with learning disabilities, families, organisations and allies.
In addition, Learning Disability England supports Inquest’s campaign for a National Oversight Mechanism to ensure the life saving recommendations that are made following inquests and inquiries are acted on and further deaths are prevented. There is currently no system in place to make sure changes are made.
People and families want to see clear accountability for turning learning into action, with named organisations responsible for making improvements. We see no meaningful accountability from the 2024 report, which like previous reports found serious inequalities between health outcomes for people with a learning disability compared to people without a learning disability, and no mention of how it will happen going forward using the dataset.
Mary Woodall, Self advocate Member Representative – “People with learning disabilities need to be involved in decision making going forward – a coproduced plan that listens to people.”
We will continue to try and find out more detail and share with members.
