Learning disability register access
Low uptake of the learning disability register due to unidentified barriers and the need to review and update GP guidance.
Source spread
Where this theme appears
This theme appears across 7 independent accountability sources, so the source mix matters as much as the headline total.
7 inquiry recs
2 PFD reports
12 committee recs
7 IMB recs
1 detention investigation rec
3 PHSO decisions
9 LGO/SPSO decisions
Browse by source
Source-grouped records are useful for tracing where a concern came from. Large sections show the 50 strongest matches for that source; counts still show the full theme total.
Inquiry recommendations(7)
R97 — Funded access to primary care
Recommendation: The SPPG must ensure that commissioning includes provision for people with learning disabilities and autistic people cared for in any facility to have fully funded access to primary care services. These may be provided by LD nurse practitioners/LD nurse consultants. …
Response Pending
R96 — Access to mainstream mental health services
Recommendation: SPPG must ensure that people with learning disabilities and autistic people have access to mainstream (i.e. the same services that are available to those without a learning disability) mental health services, with appropriate adjustments for their disabilities.
Response Pending
R94 — Continuing community support provision
Recommendation: There will be a continuing need, which must be met, for new and ongoing community-based support for young people and adults with learning disabilities and autistic people whose families become unable to cope full time. This means there is a …
Response Pending
R90 — Regional standing committee of service users and families
Recommendation: A regional standing committee of people with learning disabilities and autistic people and their relatives should be established, to be consulted by the DoH and other bodies on services for learning disabilities and autistic people. This should be funded by …
Response Pending
R87 — PCC awareness of statutory functions
Recommendation: The PCC should take further steps to ensure that health service users, including carers and families of people with learning disabilities and autistic people, are aware of its statutory functions and the assistance it is required to provide with respect …
Response Pending
R86 — PCC information on quality of care standards
Recommendation: The PCC should support service users/families and provide information on what constitutes good quality care for people with learning disabilities and autistic people, and how to spot when care is falling short.
Response Pending
R85 — RQIA communication with patients
Recommendation: RQIA needs to spend proportionately more time talking to patients/residents, and its staff need to be trained in specific communication techniques such as Makaton and Talking Mats.
Response Pending
Prevention of Future Deaths reports(2)
Stefan Kluibenschadl
Concerns: The report identifies a lack of case managers or key workers for young people diagnosed with autism, contrary to NICE guidance, which may prevent them and their families navigating available services.
Overdue
Beverley Stanisauskis
Concerns: Primary care failed to recognise a patient's learning disability as a factor in non-engagement, resulting in no direct communication or involvement from the learning disability team.
Response (GM ICB): The practice held a learning event, reviewed policies, and updated training. The ICB is validating learning disability registers and improving access to services, including developing a Prevention of Adults not …
Responded
Select committee recommendations(12)
#4 — Significant proportion of eligible people remain unregistered on the learning disability register.
Recommendation: The learning disability register is vital for people with a learning disability to receive important, life-saving annual health checks and reasonable adjustments. Yet around 75% of people with a learning disability are not registered. We heard from people who struggled …
Response Pending
#5 — Investigate reasons for low learning disability register uptake and launch awareness campaign.
Recommendation: 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 …
Response Pending
#8 —
Recommendation: The detention of autistic people and people with learning disabilities under the MHA is a significant human rights concern. Detention in the absence of individualised, therapeutic treatment risks violating the Article 5 ECHR right to liberty and may even result …
Gov response: The MHA already includes provisions regarding placing children on adult wards. It is clear that hospital managers must ensure that patients aged under 18 admitted to hospital for mental disorder are accommodated in an environment …
Under Consideration
#6 —
Recommendation: While the evidence we have received supports the view that rushing implementation of the Bill could undermine efforts to improve the treatment of autistic people and people with learning disabilities, we also note that the implementation of other substantial changes …
Gov response: We welcome the Committee’s agreement with the government’s approach and recognise the concerns expressed. For a person with a learning disability or an autistic person in the criminal justice system, hospital may be a more …
Under Consideration
#5 —
Recommendation: We are pleased to see that the Government has committed to monitoring the number of autistic people and people with learning disabilities who are detained under the Mental Capacity Act. The Government should report these numbers to Parliament within a …
Gov response: Support in the community is crucial, but we do not agree that a new dedicated right is the best approach to achieve this. We are concerned that introducing a statutory right would bring practical and …
Not Accepted
#4 —
Recommendation: There is an inherent lack of justification for detaining a person for treatment based only on their learning disability or autism, giving rise to clear concerns over compatibility with Article 5 ECHR. We welcome the Bill’s attempts to remove autistic …
Gov response: While we cannot pre-empt future funding decisions that are subject to the ongoing Spending Review process, we recognise the importance of strong community services to support people with a learning disability and autistic people. The …
Under Consideration
#3 —
Recommendation: It is particularly troubling that the accounts we heard at the roundtable event in 2025 echoed those the JCHR heard in 2019. This emphasised to us that reform of the Mental Health Act is both pressing and overdue. (Conclusion, Paragraph …
Gov response: We are pleased that the Committee welcomes our commitment to report annually on the implementation of the Bill post Royal Assent, until such a time that the Bill is fully implemented. This annual report will …
Under Consideration
#17 — Disabled claimants require significant external support to navigate inaccessible benefit applications
Recommendation: Written evidence from Sense highlighted findings from a survey of claimants with complex disabilities–49% of those surveyed reported that they could not apply for benefits without the support of friends, family or a support service. Sense recommended that DWP should …
Gov response: 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The department captures customers’ additional needs through its systems. This is a key part of its modernisation strategy, but it recognises that its current …
Accepted
#12 — Disabled people experience significant difficulty and negative impacts from benefit application process
Recommendation: Written evidence from Sense highlighted that disabled people’s experiences of the benefit system were often negative due to issues with the design of the system and how DWP communicates. In May 2024, Sense commissioned a survey of 1,000 people with …
Gov response: 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The department captures customers’ additional needs through its systems. This is a key part of its modernisation strategy, but it recognises that its current …
Accepted
#6 — Detail barriers for elderly and disabled bus users, promoting concessionary pass uptake
Recommendation: The Department does not understand why elderly and disabled people are using buses far less than they used to. The Department could not adequately explain to us why elderly and disabled people have not returned to buses to the same …
Gov response: The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. concessionary bus pass are aware of its existence and can apply easily. The department will continue to work with local transport authorities to promote the English National Concessionary …
Accepted
#3 — Set out steps and statistics to ease Child Trust Fund access for young people lacking mental capacity
Recommendation: The Child Trust Fund scheme is not easily accessible for the families and carers of children and young people lacking mental capacity. The Ministry of Justice estimates that between 63,000 and 126,000 young people may not have the mental capacity …
Gov response: The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. England and Wales The Mental Capacity Act provides for the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection (CoP) where a child under 16 is likely to continue to lack …
Accepted
#8 — Implicit inclusion of children with SEND in breakfast clubs risks unequal access.
Recommendation: Despite the implicit inclusion of children with SEND in the Bill’s provisions on breakfast clubs, we consider that express inclusion of the needs of those children on the face of the Bill would be a much stronger safeguard against schools …
Gov response: Government response to Conclusion seven: We agree on the importance of the new breakfast clubs being accessible for children with special education needs and disabilities. This is why, as part of our mission to break …
Not Accepted
IMB individual recommendations(7)
Foston Hall (2021)
The IMB is concerned about: the ongoing absence of initial screening of prisoners for learning difficulties and disability (LDD) due to a staffing shortage.
Governor / Director
Isle of Wight (2021)
All prisoners are offered rapid LDD screening, irrespective of whether they have a self-declared LDD, and all those requiring follow up have in-depth LDD screening.
Governor / Director
Hewell (2021)
Improve identification of those prisoners with learning difficulties/disabilities and their consequential support.
Governor / Director
Norwich (2023)
Will the minister please explain why prisoners with severe mental health issues or learning difficulties are still being held in custody?
Ministry of Justice
Norwich (2024)
Will the Minister please explain why prisoners with severe mental health issues or learning difficulties are still being held in custody?
Ministry of Justice
In Progress
Feltham (2025)
Investigate if local authority funding for SEN/EHCP children can follow them into custody.
HMPPS
Birmingham (2021)
How will the Prison Service plan a more coordinated, consistent and fair system of recording and tracking provision for prisoners with autism and learning difficulties, and how will they ensure that staff are fully trained and competent at recognising, working and interacting with prisoners with these conditions?
HMPPS
In Progress
Detention investigations(1)
PHSO casework decisions(3)
P-003183 — South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Miss A complains about a learning disability health service run by the Trust. Miss A also complains the Practice removed her son’s learning disability from his records, did not allow her to speak on her son’s behalf at appointments and referred her to safeguarding.
NHS in England
Dec 2024
P-004265 — Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Dr J complains about the care provided to her son during a mental health assessment. She says the assessment was inappropriate and labelled him as having a mild learning disability.
NHS in England
Nov 2025
P-002790 — Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Mrs A complains the Trust failed to recognise her son had a diagnosis of autism or that he was a vulnerable adult with a history of depression and self-harm. She says it did not take this seriously or into account when giving care and treatment and failed to give follow …
NHS in England
Jul 2024
LGO / SPSO decisions(9)
PSOW-202503627 — Newport City Council
Mr A complained that Newport City Council did not appropriately address his complaint in relation to a communication failure, where staff of the vulnerable adult services were directing the public to use a callback system which cannot connect the caller back to them. The Ombudsman found that the Council mischaracterised …
PSOW (Public Services Om…
Health
Sep 2025
PSOW-202401795 — Newport City Council
Mr S complained that Newport City Council had failed to respond to a complaint he raised in March 2024. The Ombudsman found that the Council had received a complaint but it had failed it as it was received with incorrect contact details. She also found that the Council had been …
PSOW (Public Services Om…
Health
Jul 2024
PSOW-202200853 — Ceredigion County Council
Ms A complained about the Council’s failure to properly implement the terms of an early resolution undertaken in September 2020. Ms A was aggrieved that a Carer’s Assessment was not properly completed and that there remained significant uncertainty about respite care. Ms A was also aggrieved that the Council appeared …
PSOW (Public Services Om…
Health
Dec 2022
21-015-609 — London Borough of Hounslow
Summary: Miss X complained about the way the Council dealt with her application and appeal for a Blue Badge for her son who is autistic. Since she made her complaint, the Council has carried out a further face-to-face mobility assessment and come to the same decision as before. Any investigation …
LGO (Local Government & …
Children S Care Services
Not Upheld
Oct 2022
22-003-393 — London Borough of Redbridge
Summary: The Council was at fault in how it dealt with penalty charge notices issued to Mr X as a result of fraud. The Council requested duplicate information from Mr X causing frustration and anxiety. The Council also failed to meet its duty under the Equality Act to make a …
LGO (Local Government & …
Transport And Highways
Upheld
Nov 2022
PSOW-202106906 — Ceredigion County Council
Miss X complained that the Council failed to respond to her complaint about social services , and further failed to respond to her letters. The Ombudsman decided that the Council should contact Miss X (within 5 days) to establish if she would like her complaint dealt with at stage 1 …
PSOW (Public Services Om…
Health
Feb 2022
21-013-505 — Cumbria County Council
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about how the Council carried out an Education Health and Care needs assessment. This is because the complainant has used their right to appeal about the outcome to a tribunal, which places the matter outside our jurisdiction.
LGO (Local Government & …
Education
Feb 2022
21-013-801 — Kingston Upon Hull City Council
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council have assessed a child’s special educational needs, which the complainant says will result in an inadequate Education Health and Care plan. This is because the contend of the plan carry the right of appeal to a tribunal.
LGO (Local Government & …
Education
Feb 2022
PSOW-202408040 — Cardiff Council
Mrs C complained that Cardiff Council had failed to take action to safeguard Mr A, who is a disabled adult, when he was left unaccompanied by an independent service provider. The Ombudsman decided that the Council had not adequately acknowledged or apologised for the lack of clarity in its communication …
PSOW (Public Services Om…
Health
Mar 2025