Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what improvements have been made to life expectancy for people with learning disabilities through the Core20PLUS5 programme.

The Core20PLUS5 is a national approach to inform action to reduce healthcare inequalities at a system level. The approach defines a target population, the Core20PLUS, and five clinical areas to focus on that require accelerated improvement. PLUS population groups should be identified at a local level. NHS England expects to see learning disability identified as a priority cohort.

The Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme has worked closely with NHS England’s clinical programmes to develop and embed indicators which enable the monitoring of the access, experience, and outcomes for Core20PLUS populations, and this includes people with a learning disability. The Core20PLUS5 indicator for learning disability is the Percentage of patients aged 14+ on GP learning disability registers who received an annual health check.

NHS England has published a Statement on Information on Health Inequalities which sets out the data that integrated care boards (ICBs) are expected to collect. This includes that ICBs should publish in their 2023/24 and 2024/25 annual reports relating to learning disability annual health checks and adult mental health inpatient rates for people with a learning disability and autistic people. Within these annual reports, it is expected that ICBs should explain how the information has been used to guide action.

In addition, each ICB must have an executive lead for learning disability and autism who will support the board in addressing health inequalities, supporting equal access to care across all health services, and improving overall health outcomes.