Learning Disabilities Initiative of the Year

Learning disabilities initiative of the year
Learning Disabilities Initiative of the Year
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How to apply

  1. Register an account.
  2. Start your entry (save it in-progress).
  3. Submit your entry to be in the running.

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When caring for someone who has acquired or grown up with learning impediments or disabilities there can be additional challenges in delivering safe, high-quality care. Distinct issues face service users and their carers in this field, so organisations and care systems need to apply safety checks and standards to ensure substantive mitigation in harm.

As part of the ongoing focus in the NHS Patient Safety Strategy and priorities for 2025, ensuring better visibility, active listening, and equitable access to healthcare for people with learning disabilities remains a critical goal. This includes making reasonable adjustments and co-designing services with individuals and their families to ensure care meets their needs.

This award will highlight initiatives which have delivered compassionate, efficient and most importantly safe, equitable services that are delivering improved health outcomes.

Eligibility

Judges are seeking projects that have demonstrably increased the safety and reliability of care for those with learning disabilities, whether generally or for a specific condition or need. Entries are accepted from NHS and public sector health and social care system delivering excellent standards of care.

Ambition

  • Describe the context of provision for service users with a learning disability, including the various organisations involved within the project.
  • What was the ambition for the project, and how was this new or different from existing best practice?
  • Outline the targets set for patient safety and quality improvement, and what measures were put in place to achieve them.

Outcome

  • Clearly demonstrate the benefits of the initiative on quality of care, using quantitative evidence to show tangible positive impacts on the safe care of service users with learning disabilities.
  • Discuss any other positive outcomes that were a result of the initiative, which could include improved service user experience, waiting time reduction, capacity increase or optimised treatment pathways.
  • How effective was any collaboration with key colleagues, stakeholders, partners and patients?
  • Include patient and staff testimonials supporting the efficacy of the initiative.

Spread

  • Show how these improvements in provision of safe, high-quality care for patients and service users with learning disabilities are replicable and scalable.
  • Outline the efforts made to share best practice, or examples of where this project has embedded and spread to other departments, settings, or organisations.

Value

  • Clearly evidence how the initiative has improved value for patients and staff, in terms of patient experience, staff satisfaction and quality of care.
  • If possible, provide evidence of value creation in other areas, in terms of increased capacity, reduced costs, reduced variation and/or improved efficiencies.

Involvement

  • Show how patients were involved in decisions around their care, and their views were embedded in the design of the initiative.
  • Display how other relevant parties were involved in the initiative, including families, carers, collaborating organisations, key stakeholders and staff, and how this has led to improved safety.
  • Provide testimonial evidence from all parties mentioned above on their experiences.

Learning Disabilities Initiative of the Year

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To find out more

Partnership opportunities:  Sponsorship Sales Team
Awards entry enquiries: Delegate Sales Team
Judging and event management: Awards Support