Council and democracy

Services for people with a learning disability

Health and social care support for people with learning disabilities is arranged through our community learning disability teams, supported through formal partnership arrangements with Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust.

The vision for people with learning disabilities is that they should lead fulfilled lives as members of their community with the opportunity to participate in the full range of local activities.

The aim is to promote as much independence, choice and control for people as possible and to ensure that services reflect the diversity of those communities.

To achieve this, we will:

• Improve outcomes for young people making the transition from children’s to adult services
• Increase choice and control through the use of direct payments and individual budgets
• Develop further housing and support places including shared ownership and ‘key ring’ schemes
• Explore opportunities for our own domiciliary and respite care services to provide more person-centred and flexible models for support
• Progress the day service modernisation programme to promote wider day service and employment opportunities
• Improve the way we commission and contract for services
• Provide specific training for staff on how to promote access to a wider range of services by black and minority ethnic users, how to use interpreters and how to make services more culturally sensitive
• Promote improved access to mainstream services such as acute hospitals and primary care through the work of our community learning disability teams