Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that different health care providers communicate with each other to ensure the delivery of care to patients with learning difficulties.

Under the Accessible Information Standard, all relevant organisations must ensure that information about individuals’ information and communication support needs is shared through existing data sharing processes where the consent of the individual to do so has been obtained. Such information should be included as part of referrals within and between organisations, including but not limited to referrals from primary into secondary care, transfers and handovers between wards or units, and discharge from an inpatient setting into the community.

The scope of the Standard extends to individuals who have information and/or communication support needs which are related to, or caused by, a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including those with a learning disability. Individuals who may have difficulty in reading or understanding information for other reasons such as a learning difficulty, as distinct from a learning disability, are excluded from the Standard’s scope.

In the revised Standard specification, which was issued in August 2017, organisations are now recommended, but not required, to include individuals with a learning difficulty within the scope of their activities as part of the Standard.