Getting It Right - From The Start is a volunteer-led healthcare project in the UK

Getting It Right – From The Start is a volunteer-led healthcare project based on a partnership between Mencap and four clinical commissioning groups. The main aim of the three-year project is to make reasonable adjustments to primary care services for people with a learning disability. This will improve the quality of service at GP practices. The project is being piloted by four clinical commissioning groups: East Surrey, Exeter and Mid Devon, Northamptonshire, and North Tyneside, supported by a locality co-coordinator and a Lead GP. What the project involves:

We recruit Volunteer Champions, who have a learning disability, and Volunteer Mentors, who provide support to the Champions.
We invite 20 GP surgeries in each of the pilot localities to engage with the volunteers.
The volunteers provide an Action Plan to the GP surgeries about what ‘reasonable adjustments’ can be made and how they can be made.
The volunteers deliver learning disability awareness workshops to staff at GP surgeries in each locality.
The GP surgeries are given advice on creating easy read documents to help people with a learning disability understand their health.
Volunteers re-visit GP practices six months later to review their progress and the impact of the workshop.

An evaluation of the project at the half-way point was produced in March 2013. For the full report, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. us. More information here.

The Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders - UK

The Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders is located in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham and is funded by Cerebra with additional support from a number of agencies and charities. The work of the Centre focuses on the problems experienced by children and adults who have intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders and genetic syndromes that are associated with developmental delay. At the Centre, clinical and academic psychologists, undergraduate and postgraduate students and volunteers conduct high quality research into emotional, cognitive and behavioural difference and disorder in children and adults with neurodevelopmental disorders. Information here.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan: A Neuroconstructivist Approach

smith2 From the back cover: This is the first book to present theory and evidence on development across the lifespan across these multiple levels of description (genetic, brain, cognitive, behavioural and environmental) within a neuroconstructivist framework....It is an invaluable reference for any neuroscientist, psychologist, educationist, researcher, clinician and student as well as for interested parents or teachers wishing to learn about neurodevelopmental disorders from a neuroconstructivist developmental framework.

Edited by Emily K Farran and Annette Karmiloff-Smith

Published by OUP in 2012

Winterbourne View Joint Improvement Programme and stocktake - UK

National partners have committed to improve the quality of the care offered to children, young people and adults with learning disabilities or autism who have mental health conditions or behaviour that challenges. As part of this, the LGA and NHS England have established a programme to provide leadership and support to transform services locally from childhood.

This will work with local areas to provide swift and lasting action across the system to ensure that services commissioned are personalised, safe and local. This should result both in a movement away from the use of long stay, large-scale hospital services and also lead to real and rapid change in attitudes and culture.

Local areas have been asked to complete a stocktake to assess their progress against the commitments made nationally, to ensure that programme resources are effectively targeted and to identify good practice. A key theme of work going forward nationally will be a focus on life course planning. This will stress that it is essential to involve people and their families throughout the commissioning and care cycles to improve outcomes for individuals and populations.

For more information, please click here or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.