NHS England also announced that Anne Longfield OBE, Children’s Commissioner for England, will chair an independent oversight board to scrutinise and support the work of the taskforce.
Oonagh Smyth, Executive Director of
Strategy
A strategy is a plan to show what an
organisation
An organisation are a group of people who work together.
, or a person, wants to do and how they are going to do it.
and Influence at the learning disability charity Mencap, said:
We warmly welcome NHS England’s announcement that it will introduce a new independent taskforce to improve specialist children and young people’s inpatient services in England. Anne Longfield OBE, Children’s Commissioner for England, is a strong champion for the rights
Rights are the things everyone should be allowed to do like have a say, or go to school. of children with a learning disability and/or autism and we welcome her appointment as chair. We look forward to continuing to work with her to ensure that children and young people can get the support they need in their community
A community is the people and places in an area. to stop them from reaching crisis point.
We hope that this taskforce will help release the 245 children with a learning disability and/or autism who are locked away in inpatient units. This number has more than doubled in four years. We need to prevent children from being admitted into these institutions in the first place and enable those children who are currently locked away to come back home to their loved ones.
With this announcement, we are hopeful that this signals the NHS England’s commitment to transforming care for the nearly 2000 adults with a learning disability and/or autism are also locked away in inpatient units. Children and adults with a learning disability and/or autism have the right to live close to loved ones, with the right support, enabling them to live fulfilling lives. We look forward to working with NHS England to make this a reality.
For further information about the taskforce, visit the NHS England website.
-ENDS-
For further information or to arrange interviews with a Mencap
spokesperson
A spokesperson is someone who speaks up about something. They usually speak up on behalf of a group or organisation.
, contact Mencap’s media team on:
- media@mencap.org.uk
- 020 7696 5414 (including out of hours).
Notes to editors
About Mencap
There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK. Mencap works to support people with a learning disability, their families and carers by fighting to change laws, improve services and access to
education
Education is when you learn things. When you fill in a form to get a job, education means you write where you went to school, college or university.
,
employment
Employment means having a job.
and
leisure
Leisure is when you have time to do things you enjoy like playing sports or going to the pub.
facilities. Mencap supports thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want. Visit www.mencap.org.uk.
For advice and information about learning disability and Mencap services in your area, contact Mencap’s Freephone Learning Disability Helpline on 0808 808 1111 (9am-3pm, Monday-Friday) or email helpline@mencap.org.uk.
What is a learning disability?
- A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability which can cause problems with everyday tasks – for example shopping and cooking, or travelling to new places – which affects someone for their whole life;
- Learning disability is not a mental illness or a learning difficulty, such as
dyslexia
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty. People who have dyslexia can find it hard to read, write and spell.
. Very often the term ‘learning difficulty’ is wrongly used interchangeably with ‘learning disability’; - People with a learning disability can take longer to learn new things and may need support to develop new skills, understand difficult information and engage with other people. The level of support someone needs is different with every individual. For example, someone with a severe learning disability might need much more support with daily tasks than someone with a mild learning disability.