New mandatory training for the health and care workforce to improve support for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
In 2022 the Government introduced a new mandatory training requirement for all health and care staff working in regulated services; it is about improving support for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
The training is often associated with a young man named Oliver McGowan, whose death further highlighted the ongoing need for better training for health and social care staff. The intention is to help staff to understand the needs of people with learning disabilities and autistic people and how to provide them with safe, compassionate and informed care.
The training has both online and live components and is free to all health and care staff. It is designed to be flexible and accessible. It covers a range of topics, including:
- the needs of autistic people and people with learning disabilities
- communication and interaction
- physical health and wellbeing
- mental health and wellbeing
- safeguarding
- equality and diversity
The government is committed to ensuring that all people with learning disabilities and autistic people have access to high-quality care. The new mandatory training is an important step in achieving this goal.
The first part of the training is already available online, and the development of the second interactive component for the Kent and Medway system is in progress.
We encourage all health and care staff to take the training and to use it to improve their understanding of the needs of people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
If you are a Kent and Medway health care provider, we recommend:
- you familiarise yourself with what the regulator (Care Quality Commission) for health and care in England has to say about training staff to support autistic people and people with a learning disability
- check if your organisation has already added the mandated training to your online learning platform:
- If they have then try and complete it as soon as possible, and join the growing 1000’s of health and care staff that have already completed it across Kent and Medway.
- If you are unsure ask your organisation's learning and development team for assurance and updates.
- that if your organisation or individual staff can't access the training any other way you can register for freely available eLearning that can be completed now. This will provide the foundation for future live training, which will be co-delivered by experts with experience. This is being developed for health and care staff across the Kent and Medway system.
- If you have any questions please email kmicb.kentandmedway@nhs.net with the subject 'Mandatory training for health and care workforce to improve support for people with learning disabilities and autistic people'.
We will be updating this with further updates as this work progresses and we understand what works best for our Kent and Medway workforce.
