Commissioners of Learning Disability Services Currently Face a Number of Challenges

Using the CLDT tool to support QIPP and the commissioning of Learning Disability Services.

Commissioners of Learning Disability Services currently face a number of challenges.

1.  Commissioning a range of services to meet the needs of individuals with challenging behaviours, address safeguarding concerns, promote inclusion and support personalisation.

2.  Working with providers to improve standards of care, effectiveness and service user experience.

3.  Tackling health inequalities and equal access to services within primary and secondary care,

4.  Ensure that the emerging GP commissioning consortia understand the wide range of needs people with learning disabilities and their carers.

5.  Deliver on QIPP a large scale transformational programme for the NHS, involving all NHS staff, clinicians, patients and the voluntary sector and will improve the quality of care the NHS delivers whilst making up to £20billion of efficiency savings by 2014-15.

The self assessment tool and guide is designed to be used by commissioners and providers to enable them to review and redesign and improve services with an approach that includes people with learning disabilities, their carers and other stakeholders and address many of the challenges highlighted above.

It can also be used in conjunction with the Learning Disability Performance Framework to set priorities for localities and jointly agree key performance indicators (which are outcome focused) across service areas.

The tool also has the potential to provide commissioners and providers with a mechanism to identify opportunities to identify and deliver local QIPP projects, e.g. reducing emergency hospital activity by strengthening long term condition management for people with learning disabilities.

Finally the outcomes that have been developed will support commissioners and providers to communicate to emerging consortia what specialist services offer in terms of outcomes and benefit to the wider health and social care economy whilst also providing a framework for future engagement with stakeholders.

Richard Eccles

Learning Disability Programme Manager, NHS Lincolnshire.