Recommendation 5

As an immediate priority, the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England should work with national and local learning disability organisations and charities and the Royal College of General Practitioners to investigate why eligible people are not on the learning disability register and take appropriate action to increase registration. That work should include an assessment of the reasons why eligible people who have applied to be on the register have been denied access to it and a review of the existing guidance for GPs to ensure it captures all those who are eligible for registration. We also recommend that, by the end of 2024: • The Government should develop and launch an awareness raising campaign to encourage people to ask their GP to be put on the learning disability register; the campaign should be appropriately tailored to deliver increased registration among underrepresented communities; Inequalities in healthcare and employment for people with a learning disability and autistic people 35 • All GPs should ensure staff are using existing guidance on registration correctly to ensure eligible people are not being denied access to the register before even seeing a GP.