Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Learning Disability annual health check has been removed as a national target for primary care in the 2025-26 NHS plan.

The national target to complete annual health checks for 75% of people with a learning disability is not included in the 2025/26 NHS Planning Guidance. Most recent data from 2023/24 shows 79.6% of checks were delivered, surpassing the previous 75% National Health Service target.

To ensure these important checks continue, 2025/26 Planning Guidance still requires integrated care boards (ICBs) to report on the number of people on the Learning Disability Register who receive an annual health check, supported by a health action plan, each quarter. These checks are the first line of defence for people with a learning disability, many of whom live with additional health needs including long-term conditions. Over the past few years, and particularly through the pandemic, strong support from general practitioners to maintain learning disability annual health checks has enabled more people than ever before to have a health check and health action plan, an increase of more than 20% since 2020.

NHS England is working with people with lived experience, clinical professionals and ICB commissioners to produce an annual health check quality framework. The Annual Health Check quality framework will set out both the purpose, content and outcomes expected within an annual health check and the accompanying health action plan.