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Update
for
learning
disability and/or
autism
services
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Welcome to the
second workforce development update for learning disability and/or autism
services.
These updates will focus on workforce development for adult social care
services for autistic people and people who have a learning disability.
We’ll share the latest news, resources, events and funding opportunities
from Skills for Care and partners. You can find previous newsletters here.
We’ll send these updates out quarterly, in addition to ad-hoc updates when
we have important news to share.
You can also sign up to our fortnightly enews for
regular updates from Skills for Care.

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News
from Skills for Care
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Improving
the uptake of annual health checks for people with a learning disability
Skills for Care is working with partners* to explore the barriers to people
with a learning disability accessing an annual health check. Evidence shows
that these checks have been successful in identifying unmet health needs
and reducing inequalities, however, only 53% of people with a learning
disability access them. We’re running a short survey for people with a
learning disability, GPs and health and social care providers to find out
their experiences of annual health checks. Please complete the survey here, and share the link with
colleagues and the people that you support. The deadline for responses is
17.00 on Monday 25 November 2019. Download a leaflet here to promote the survey.
*The project is funded by Health Education England South, and the partners
are The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), Learning Disability
England, Skills for Care and Voluntary Organisations Disability Group
(VODG).
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Testing a peer
review process for PBS training
Skills for Care is running a pilot project to test a peer review process
for positive behaviour support (PBS) training. The project involves ten
learning providers peer reviewing each other’s training, to ensure that it
meets the relevant standards and to give feedback and share ideas. We hope
that this will be a successful model to improve the quality of PBS training
in the sector. The peer reviews are happening now, and we’ll publish the
findings in winter 2019 on our website. We’ll include an update in the next
newsletter.
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Join our standing
advisory group
We want to set up a group of people with a learning disability and/or
autistic people who can consider and advise us on the work that we do. This
could be via telecom, email or face to face meetings, and we can cover
reasonable travel and participation costs. If you know someone who might be
interested, please email policy@skillsforcare.org.uk.
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Coming soon: A
guide to commissioning services for autistic people
This guide is for commissioners who work in social care, health, education
and children’s commissioning services for autistic people, to help you to
make informed commissioning decisions and improve the outcomes for autistic
people and their families. It explains the things that you need to analyse,
the things that you need to do, and who/what organisations you should
engage with, as well as links to useful guidance and information, to help
you to identify and plan the changes needed to improve your commissioning
practices and deliver person-centred outcomes for local autistic people. We
hope to launch the guide in the next few weeks - watch our Twitter account
for updates.
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Working with
families, friends and carers: a framework for adult social care employers
We’re pleased to launch an updated version of this framework, which sets
out some good practice guidelines about what adult social care employers
and their staff need to know and do to work effectively with families,
friends and carers.The framework is for adult social care managers and
those in learning and development roles in any type of social care setting.
You can use the guidelines as a measure of good practice, to review and
assess what you do now and identify what you can improve. It can also help
to identify what learning and development around ‘working with families’
could include, to help you to design and/or commission training. Download
the framework here or email us
for a printed copy. Please note that we have a limited number of printed
copies, and they’ll be sent out on a first come, first served basis.
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Get prepared for
flu season
People with a learning disability and autistic people can access a free flu
jab to protect them against catching flu and developing serious
complications. We’re encouraging adult social care employers to talk to the
people they support, and their families, about getting a flu jab this
winter. You can find out more about eligibility and accessing the flu jab here.
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Statement
about the Liberty Protection Safeguards
In May 2019, the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act became law, and one of the
changes will be that Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) will be
replaced by a new scheme of Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). There’s a
national group that’s developing a Code of Practice which will explain how
the LPS will work and offer examples of best practice. Any training around
the LPS should be linked to the Code of Practice, which is still in
development. This means that any training delivered before the Code has
been finalised and made public may not meet the required standards. Our
advice is that adult social care employers do not commission training around LPS
until the Code of Practice is finalised and made public. Skills for Care is
developing a programme of support to help adult social care employers to
implement the LPS, including learning resources and workforce guidance. Sign up to
our enews to keep up-to-date.
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News
from the sector
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Coming
soon: Core capabilities framework for supporting autistic people
Health Education England has funded the development of a new autism core
capabilities framework for health and care staff, and staff in
organisations with public facing responsibilities. The framework will span
all ages.
The purpose of the framework is to support development and planning of the
workforce, and to inform the design and delivery of education and training
programmes.
The framework is expected to launch over the next few weeks. Watch our
Twitter account for updates.
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Coming soon:
Learning disabilities core skills education and training framework
Skills for Health has reviewed and refreshed this framework to take into
account the findings from the ‘Learning disabilities mortality review’,
which found that there are some health problems that people with a learning
disability might get more than other people, or that health services aren’t
good at finding and treating. The aim of the framework is to ensure that
health and social care staff have the skills to do something about this.
The framework will support development and planning of the workforce and
inform the design and delivery of education and training programmes.
The framework is expected to launch over the next few weeks. Watch our
Twitter account for updates.
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Disability Hate
Crime Training Resource (United Response and West Yorkshire Police)
United Response has worked with West Yorkshire Police to produce a training
pack to help disabled people, including autistic people and people with a
learning disability, to recognise whether they are, or have been, a victim
of hate crime, and if so, how to best report it. The pack also gives advice
about how to support or advocate for someone who cannot do this on their
own. Download the training resource here.
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Learning
disability: behaviour that challenges quality standard (July 2019 update)
(National Institute for Health and Care Excellence)
This quality standard describes what high-quality care and support looks
like when working with people who display or are at risk of displaying
behaviours which challenge. It covers services for children, young people
and adults with a learning disability, and best practice in working with
families and carers. You can use the standard to measure the quality of
care, identify gaps and areas for improvement, and plan workforce
development to help you to make the required changes.
Read the updated standards here.
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Medicines in health and social care: an
update from the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
The CQC has published this report which shows the most common areas of risk
when using medicines across health and social care in England, and shares
examples of good practice and recommendations for providers.
The report includes a section for adult social care providers. One of the
findings was that some providers were not carrying out competency
assessments or regular checks, so were unable to demonstrate that staff
were competent to administer medicines safely. Some staff reported that
they hadn’t received any formal medicines training. Read the update here.
Skills for Care can help you to find high-quality training that’s delivered
by endorsed providers, through our online directory, here.
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Other news
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Review
of restraint, prolonged seclusion and segregation for people with a
mental health problem, a learning disability or autism: interim report
publication (Care Quality Commission)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is looking at how places that provide
inpatient and residential care for people with mental health problems, a
learning disability, and/or autistic people use restrictive
interventions, and will use the findings to make recommendations about
their use.
They’ve completed phase one of the review with health care settings, and
you can read the interim review here.
Phase two will review restrictive interventions in residential care homes
for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people and
children’s residential services. The final report is expected in March
2020.
Learning
Disability Mortality Review
The Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme was
commissioned to improve the standard and quality of care for people with
a learning disability. The third annual report, published in May 2019,
provides an update on the learning from this work. The latest LeDeR
report cites deaths reviewed where there were concerns about the quality
of care, and an average age of death that is 23 years younger than the
general population for men with a learning disability and 27 years
younger for women. Read the report here.
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Dates
for your diary
Please check the
Skills for Care website for other events and seminars, here.
Find your local
Registered Manager Network
If you're a registered manager, these networks give you the opportunity
to link with like-minded colleagues who face similar, everyday
challenges. Some of the networks are specifically for managers of
services for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
Find your local network here.
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Skills for Care Ltd, West
Gate, Grace Street, Leeds LS1 2RP
Registered company no.3866683. Registered in England
Registered charity no. 1079836. Group VAT no. 135 5383 15
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