>>Aaron: Hello my name is Aaron Oxford and I am a learning disability and autism network
manager at NHS England.
The Prime Minister has asked the NHS to write a plan for the future. The plan has now been
written, it shows how extra money for the NHS will be spent.
The NHS has involved a lot of people in the work in saying what should be in the plan.
This included people with a learning disability, autistic people or both, families and carers.
The plan is about the whole of the NHS.
We are really pleased that one of the top things in the plan says there must be work
to improve things for people with a learning disability, autism or both. This will include
work that looks at learning disability and autism separately.
>> Ray: Hello my name is Ray James National Director for learning disability.
The NHS long term plan is a really important moment in signalling an ongoing commitment
to work with and for people with a learning disability, autistic people and their families
to help improve their lives so that they can lead longer, happier, healthier lives in their
communities. To do that we want to make changes and improvements at every stage.
For example we know that autistic people often wait too long for a diagnosis, so we want
to start by working out ways in which we can ensure that children and young people get
better and quicker autism diagnosis.
But it’s really important that people can access the support that they need. We’re
keen to ensure that autistic children and children with a learning disability with the
most complex of needs and their families get keyworker support in order to help them understand
what support is available and how best to access it.
It also means that we want to tackle the health inequalities, the reasons why people with
a learning disability and autistic people often die too young. So understanding more
about why they die too young and taking action to change that in every part of the Country.
Making sure that everybody accesses an annual health check, beginning to try out health
checks for autistic people. Making sure that children with a disability in schools for
disabled children can access specialist hearing checks, eye tests and specialist dentist support
much better than they can now.
We’re determined to continue our work to help ensure that less people spend time in
hospital and in inpatient settings. To do that we will strengthen community services
and everywhere in the country there will be crisis services operating seven days a week.
Some people will need treatment in hospital, but when they do we want to make sure it’s
for as short a time possible for as long as they need treatment, and that the quality
of care and treatment the receive is much better - and certainly there have been some
recent cases that we know we must learn from.
But this isn’t just about specialist services for people with a learning disability and
autistic people, we want every part of the NHS to make the changes necessary to help
people access the care, support and treatment they need, when and where they need it. That
might be about reducing or changing medication, it might be about taking a little bit longer
to explain things to someone with a learning disability, or ensuring that an autistic person
can get the first appointment of the day at their GP. All of these things and more that
we across all of the NHS can do to help ensure people can access the quality of care and
support that they need.
But it shouldn’t just be about what happens in the NHS, wider society has a role to play
too. One of the best examples of that is employment, so we in the NHS will be committing to increase
the number of people with a learning disability that we employ, and the number of autistic
people that we employ, and we hope that other public bodies and other employers will do
the same. So that together we can work with and listen to people with a learning disability,
autistic people and their families and help them to lead lives of their choosing in homes
not hospitals with and in their local communities. Thank you.
>>Aaron: Thank you everyone who has been involved in the work to make the long term plan. The
NHS has had much valuable input from people with a learning disability, autistic people
or both and families and carers. We will continue to make sure that people with lived experience
are involved in our work. A great way of doing this is by employing more people like me.
This helps make sure that what we are doing is what people actually want and need, and
what will make a difference to people’s health and lives.
You can find out more from the links below. We will keep the links updated with easy read
versions of the information as it is made.