Autism and Learning Disability

Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 4 June 2018.

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Photo of Barbara Keeley Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister (Mental Health and Social Care)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with (a) a learning disability and (b) autism have been discharged into community settings from hospital in each year since 2015.

Photo of Barbara Keeley Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister (Mental Health and Social Care)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with (a) a learning disability and (b) autism have been admitted to hospital in each year since 2015.

Photo of Barbara Keeley Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister (Mental Health and Social Care)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many beds in in-patient settings will be closed by March 2019 as a result of the Building the Right Support strategy.

Photo of Barbara Keeley Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister (Mental Health and Social Care)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money has been transferred from health budgets to each local authority to fund the development of community support for people with (a) a learning disability, (b) autism and (c) behaviour that challenges under the Transforming Care programme in each year since 2015.

Photo of Caroline Dinenage Caroline Dinenage Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Ray James, National Learning Disability Director at NHS England outlined that by March 2019 National Health Service commissioners in England plan to decommission just over 900 beds in mental health hospitals previously used by patients with a learning disability, autism or both.

The Assuring Transformation (AT) dataset provides data on the numbers of people with learning disability and/or autism admitted and discharged from mental health hospitals.

Data is not collected centrally on the number of people with learning disability and/orautism admitted and discharged from all hospitals.

The following tables show admissions from the community and discharges to the community for the last three financial years. Figures reported are for the number of admissions and discharges and not the number of people as this is the format in which the data are collected. Presenting the data in this way also enables discharges and admissions over the three years to be directly compared. Over this three year period some people may have been admitted and discharged more than once. All data are taken from the AT data set as at 31 March 2018. NHS England does not hold information centrally regarding how much money has been transferred from health budgets to each local authority to fund the development of community support.

All data are taken from the AT data set as at 31 March 2018.

NHS England does not hold information centrally regarding how much money has been transferred from health budgets to each local authority to fund the development of community support.

Discharges to the community as at 31 March 2018*

Learning Disability Only

Autistic Spectrum Condition Only

Both (Learning Disability and Autistic Spectrum Condition

Total

2015/16

855 (56%)

265 (18%)

390 (26%)

1,510 (100%)

2016/17

865 (54%)

385 (24%)

360 (22%)

1,610 (100%)

2017/18

700 (44%)

550 (35%)

335 (21%)

1,580 (100%)

Source: AT data set

Admissions from the community as at 31 March 2018*

Learning Disability Only

Autistic Spectrum Condition Only

Both (Learning Disability and Autistic Spectrum Condition

Total

2015/16

690 (54%)

265 (21%)

315 (25%)

1,275 (100%)

2016/17

700 (50%)

380 (27%)

310 (22%)

1,395 (100%)

2017/18

485 (39%)

470 (38%)

295 (24%)

1,250 (100%)

Source: AT data set

Notes:

The AT data set does not directly identify whether an admission is from the community or is a transfer from another hospital setting. Similarly, the data does not directly identify whether the end of an episode of care is a discharge to the community or a transfer to another hospital setting.

These figures represent the best estimate of admissions from the community and discharges to the community, based on previous records for the patient and whether a previous admission date is recorded. For this reason, these figures cannot be compared directly to admission and discharge figures published by NHS Digital in their monthly publication which include transfers from other hospital settings.

Delays in the recording of admissions on AT may affect the figures– the admissions count for 2017/18 is likely to be understated due to late reporting of admissions that took place in the last two or three months of the financial year.

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five to minimise disclosure risks associated with small numbers. It should be noted that rows will therefore not always add up to the total. Percentages have been calculated based on the unrounded numbers.

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