Agenda item

a)            LLR Learning Disability and Autism (LDA) 3 Year Plan Progress Report.

Mark Roberts. Assistant Director. Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust

Cheryl Bosworth. Senior Programme Manager - Transforming Care Programme. LLR CCGs present the

b)         Project Search Opportunities for Children, and Young People with SEND

Steph Beale will introduce the report

Helen Thompson, Director of Families, Young People and Children's and LD Services at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Chery Bosworth, Senior Programme Manager Transforming Care Programme, LLR CCG presented the LLR Learning Disability and Autism (LDA) 3 Year Plan Progress Report.

The LLR Learning Disability and Autism 3 Year Plan was submitted to NHSEI in May 2021 and was favourably received. The plan seeks to address the health inequalities experienced by this population and is complimented by focused performance management of key outcomes detailed in a presentation shown to the meeting.

The plan contained a large number of projects pertaining to both adults, and children and young people’s services for individuals with a learning disability, autism or both. It brought together multiple funding streams to ensure coordination of commissioning, provision and improvement work.

Funding streams included NHSEI Service Development Funding, NHSEI Spending Review Funding, DHSE Community Discharge Grant, East Midlands CAMHS Collaborative and the Mental Health Investment Standards

Robust governance arrangements were in place to monitor the progress and performance of these projects. New projects had been recently added to the initial plan following successful expressions of interest for additional funding.

Good progress was being made on all projects and progress was overseen by the multiagency Transforming Care Programme (TCP) Delivery Group.  The Learning Disability and Neurodisability Design Group provided governance support.

During the presentation it was noted that:-

·         All people with a learning disability and/or autism would have the fundamental right to live good fulfilling lives, within their communities with access to the right support from the right people at the right time.

·         The average age of death for adults with a learning disability was 59 years old and they were six times more likely to die from covid.

·         NHS England had provided dedicated 3 year funding to transform services enabling long term planning to reduce numbers in hospital settings through a national policy shift around collaboration, integration and innovation to work together to improve social health for all.

·         The Aims and Objectives of Transforming Care were outlined in the presentation which would improve early intervention and pathways, quality of service and reduce health inequalities which would then help to reduce hospital admissions.

·         Working as an integrated team across LLR was showing good benefits and outcomes.  The aim was to enable 100% of people to have a health check to pick up issues earlier and to learn from assessing mortality reviews to make service changes.

·         There was a clear defined governance structure for projects with co-ordination between service managers and the voluntary sector.

·         Currently 77 70% had not had health checks but it was aimed to complete these before April 2022.

·         75% of people with a learning difficulty would have an annual health check by year 3 and whilst this was an improvement over recent years it was still not considered high enough.

Members of the Board commentated that:-

·         There were high none attendance rates for primary care appointments and if care workers could be involved they could book appointments and help patients to attend.  Both patients and carers should own the outcomes of checks.

·         The work on collaborations was impressive and could be made into a case study of how services should work.

·         Recent team efforts in getting people vaccination through a person accentuated approach had resulted in many vaccinations being carried out that would not otherwise have been done.  This demonstrated that these things were best done at place level and system level and it was important to keep looking that to ensure services were delivered at the most appropriate level in the most effective way.

·         This work was important to share with the work done with SEND and the SEND Board.

·         It was important for people to be supportive and take patients to appointments.  The integrated approach was extremely welcome.

The Chair welcomed the work undertaken and was supportive with the strategy.  She emphasised that families were struggling every day and don’t always get the support and engagement they needed. They needed the support to be available at the appropriate time and to be shown respect for their difficulties they were experiencing.  The Chair also commented that neurodiversity should be promoted and adopted at this would provide services to a wider base than just those with ADHD.

Project Search Opportunities For CYP With Send

Steph Beale, Principal Ellesmere College, introduced Project Search Opportunities for CYP with SEND.  Ellesmere College was the largest provider for SEND within the City of Leicester soon to provide 426 places for young people aged 5-19 with wide ranges of SEND.  They were keen for their young people to have realistic opportunities to join the workforce when they left school. It was felt that a Project Search supported internship programme within the NHS or other large organisation could help us to achieve this.  The Board received a presentation on the initiative.

During the presentation it was noted that:-

·         The school trained pupils with the skills of respect, teamwork, responsibility, resilience, independence and confidence to prepare students for the world of work after leaving school and to be good citizens.

·         The percentage of adults with SEND in permanent sustained employment (16 plus hours) was 6.2% nationally and it was currently 7.7% in Leicester which people wanted to improve.

·         Project Search were running 69 schemes nationally supporting more than 1,300 young people with SEND into paid work.  60% of supported internships continued into paid employment and it hoped to improve this level in Leicester.

·         Evidence showed that being in employment improved health and wellbeing and was central to individual identify, social roles and social status.

·         People in work tended to enjoy happier and healthier lives and paid work had the potential to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

·         Transitioning people from education straight into competitive employment also saved money for health and social care by creating opportunities for people with learning difficulties to become net contributors rather than recipients of adult social care and health services.

·         Project Search had recently signed a contract with the NHS to run internships across 42 new sites in the UK but Leicester was not included in the bid and Ellesmere wished to change this. The distribution of employment positions in the NHS was outlined.

·         Ellesmere College were looking for support from a large employer in the City - UHL Trust for example in order to bring the Project Search to Leicester.

·         The Board’s support for the initiative would be appreciated.

Mark Wightman (UHL NHS Trust), Helen Thompson (LPT NHS Trust) and Chief Inspector Manjit Atwal all indicated they would like to be involved in the Project Search initiative and welcomed conversations with Steph Beale after the meeting.  They all had employment opportunities which could provide opportunities to bring a young diverse range of people into their organisations to be part of their inclusive workforces.

Councillor Cutkelvin stated that she welcomed the proposal and wished to develop links with the work proposed by Ellesmere College and would welcome being involved as it supported work the Council wished to do with community colleges and SEND.

RESOLVED:-

1)    Officers were thanked for the update on the progress of the implementation of the projects included in the LDA 3 year Plan and for the work to monitor the projects within the agreed governance arrangements.

2)    The Board supported the Project Search initiative and encouraged representative of organisations on the Board to have discussions with Steph Beale to bring the initiative to Leicester and provide job opportunities for adult with learning difficulties as it was felt that the initiative could make a real difference in a short space of time.