Over half of adults with learning difficulties do not live past 65, report says
The government has confirmed that Monday’s report will be the last LeDeR publication in the current format and that future data will be recorded alongside other health outcomes for people with autism and ADHD in England.
Health Minister Preet Kaur Gill, in a written statement at the ministry level, said that the statistics highlighted in the report were “unacceptable”.
“I want to assure you that we are taking them seriously,” he said.
He said the government was “committed to improving outcomes” through early intervention and was focusing on training to improve the identification of people with learning disabilities in GP records to enable them to attend health checks.
NHS England said it would introduce a “reasonable adjustment digital flag” for all disabled people to ensure adjustments are kept on their records.
The Royal College of Nurses has previously raised concerns about the number of healthcare staff specializing in working with patients with learning disabilities or autism.
Its own report, published earlier this summer, said the number of specialist nurses had fallen by 44% in just over a decade, from 7,000 to 4,500, and that only 500 new people had been recruited to learn the specialty this year.
Jon Sparkes OBE, chief executive of disability learning charity Mencap, said he was concerned that the end of the LeDeR report in its current form could mean the issue “de-prioritises”.
“This is literally a matter of life and death and risks undoing years of hard-won progress,” he said.
“We urgently need to know how the government will pursue independent scrutiny and, importantly, understand and tackle the causes of preventable deaths.
“People with learning disabilities need to know that their lives are valued.”
For Charlie Lander’s family, LeDeR is a crucial study that highlights the health disparities some people face.
Lander, who had Pica syndrome, an eating disorder that causes severe learning disabilities and cravings for non-food items, died in hospital in June 2022 at the age of 48 after swallowing a plastic glove that caused an intestinal blockage.
