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Workforce update for

services that support people with a learning disability and/or autistic people

Welcome to this month's newsletter for adult social care services that support people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We're sharing the latest news, resources, events and funding opportunities from Skills for Care and partners.

Skills for Care news

Building digital confidence  

Throughout November and December, Skills for Care is running their ‘Building digital confidence’ campaign. They’re using the campaign to explain what is meant by ‘digital’ and how digital technology can improve care services and provide people with greater independence and control over their care. 

This will include increasing understanding of artificial intelligence and how it can be used ethically within adult social care. They’ll also help you make the connection between the digital skills you already use in your personal lives, but don’t see as transferable to the workplace.  

Find out more

Guiding principles for delegated healthcare activities updated

We’ve updated our guiding principles for delegated healthcare activities following an evaluation. While 79% of people agreed that the guiding principles had increased understanding of delegated healthcare activities and 73% agreed they had enabled a better care experience and outcomes for people drawing on care and support. Improvements have been made to the resources, specifically to:  

Personalised workforce development to support people with learning disabilities and autistic people

Personalised workforce development involves finding or commissioning tailored training and development that is specifically designed to meet the needs of the person supported. Attend one of these webinars to discover how personalised workforce development can improve outcomes, what the barriers are to doing this, and what would help.

Register to join one of the workshops:

• Monday 2 December | 14:00 - 16:00 
  
• Tuesday 10 December | 10:00 - 12:00
  

New: Ten public health tips for social care workers elearning module

A new, free learning module tailored specifically for people who work in adult social care has an underlying theme of prevention and is designed to build on the knowledge you already have. It offers practical guidance on how your practice relates to public health approaches and how to further integrate these approaches into your day-to-day work with people who have a learning disability and/or autisic people.

Key topics include preventing illness, promoting wellbeing and mental health, and supporting healthy aging. Completing the module will enhance the quality of care for those you support and deepen your understanding of public health.

Find out more

Sector news

Growing older, planning ahead 

Growing Older Planning Ahead is an independent research project funded by the National Institute for Health Records (NIHR). The project aimed to find out about the experiences of older people with learning disabilities and family carers. The project report is available in three different formats.

There are two free OpenLearn courses available from the Open University developed because of the project: 

• Supporting older people with learning disabilities and their families
• Caring for an older family member with learning disabilities

UK Covid-19 inquiry: Every Story Matters

Every Story Matters is an opportunity to help the UK Covid-19 inquiry understand individual experiences of the pandemic. The pandemic affected everyone in the UK and in a lot of cases is continuing to have an impact, this is an opportunity to share with the inquiry the impact it has had on both your own life and on the life of those around you or those you support. 

Find out more about the UK Covid-19 inquiry and share your experiences

Celebration of nurses working in the field of learning disabilities 

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation have produced a short video called ‘Insider Voices: Breaking the Culture Cycle’. The film is a celebration of nurses working in the field of learning disabilities who uphold people’s human rights and ensure dignity and equality. The film’s main aim is to help inspire and empower frontline nurses to work in partnership and to speak out about closed cultures and what actions can be taken. 

Watch the video

Disparities in life expectancies for people with a learning disability from Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic backgrounds

The Race Equality Foundation have found shocking disparities in life expectancies for people with a learning disability from Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic backgrounds, with the average age of death being 34 years compared to 62 years for White individuals. The Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) 2022 also revealed that 27% of people with a learning disability did not receive an annual health check in the year before their death. 

Building upon their research, they have worked with Learning Disability England and with people with lived experience from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities to raise awareness and improve the uptake of annual health checks. They have produced an important set of resources to help, including the published report, video and an easy read leaflet.

Find the research and supporting resources.

Online health information library

Easy Health is an online library, with easy access to health information. The library guides use simple words, clear pictures and films. There is a range of information around different health issues and conditions including: heart disease, dental problems and epilepsy. 

Find the Easy Health library

Learning Disability Professional Senate conference

The Learning Disability Professional Senate conference, ‘Working Together to Stay Well’, took place in October. It had the aim of sharing research and best practice to improve outcomes for children and adults with a learning disability. 

Watch the event on the Challenging Behaviour Foundation’s website. You can also sign-up to the their newsletter to receive information about co-produced projects, as well as updates on policy relating to people with learning disabilities whose behaviours challenge and their families.  

The Victoria and Stuart Project toolkit

Paradigm UK have worked with Kingston University to create interactive guides for their toolkit on supporting people with a learning disability to think about death and dying. Explore the end-of-life planning toolkit alongside conversation cards co-created to help people think about funerals and when they are ill.

The Valuing People Alliance

The Valuing People Alliance includes organisations who work with people with learning disabilities, their families and their carers, as well as the wider social care, health and disability communities. Find out more about the alliance and the projects they work on together on the Learning Disability England website.

Thinking about where to live guide

Learning Disability England has worked with Housing LIN and Ace Anglia and have produced a guide to help people with learning disabilities and autistic people, and those who support them, to help them when thinking about where to live. 

View the guide

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