Learning Disability Partnership Boards

Yorkshire and Humber

What we found out in January 2015

Written by: Inclusion North 2015

What is this report?

This report is about Learning Disability Partnership Boards.
Some Boards have a different name but still focus on making
sure people with learning disabilities lead a good life. They
include people, families and different professionals who want to
help make that happen.
In this report we have included any group that works like that
when we talk about Learning Disability Partnership Boards.

The Yorkshire and Humber Leadership group asked Inclusion

North to do a small piece of work to find out how Partnership
Boards are working in Yorkshire and Humber

We did this by asking people who lead or organise Partnership

Boards to fill in a survey about how the board works in their
area

What is happening across the rest of the country

and in policies
The Valuing People Paper first asked areas to set up Learning
Disability Partnership Boards in 2001
Valuing People Now (2009) said Partnership Boards are still
important in making the big changes with people with Learning
Disabilities.

We asked people who work with Councils or are part of Valuing

People networks if Partnership Boards still exist in other parts
of the country.
There is no official report by the government at the moment but
we found out in most other regions some Partnership Boards
still exist but they now work in different ways.
People told us most of the areas in the areas in the North West,
North East, West Midlands and South West still have
Partnership Boards
In 2012 122 out of 154 (79%) Partnership Boards sent in a
Partnership Board report in their work. More Partnership
Boards might still be working but did not send in a report.

Lots of the new laws and policies ask Councils and NHS
organisations to make sure people who use services and their
families help them to plan and check on services.
They also ask that people are involved making decisions about
their own care.
The Winterbourne View final report on that review and the big
agreement (concordat) says it is important to involve people
with Learning Disabilities and their families in making the
targets happen:
Commissioners should show how they have involved
people and their families in planning and buying the right
local services1
People and families have an important role to play in
challenging local agencies on how they are doing in
making services better2
The reports since then have said this is still really important and
Partnership Boards are one way to do it3
1

DH Transforming Care 2012 P.28 section 4.27

DH Transforming Care 2012 P.28 section 2.27
3
Winterbourne View Time for Change P.36 section 10.1
2

What is happening now in Yorkshire and Humber

We asked questions about
- If there is a Learning Disability Partnership Board in each area
and how it works
- If there is another Board or group that includes more people and
how it works

A snap shot of what people told us about Learning Disability

Partnership Boards now:
10 of the 15 Council areas replied to the survey
9 areas said they have a Learning Disability Partnership Board
1 area has a joint Learning Disability and Mental Health Partnership Board

They set out to:

Help people with learning disabilities and their families have a say or influence on
local plans or services
Promote rights and values of inclusion and community life
Make services better or give people with learning disabilities more control
Share information on what is happening locally and nationally
Work together on solving problems or making changes
Officers from 62% of the Boards think there is evidence of the Board making a difference
8 of the 9 Learning Disability Partnership Boards are linked to their local Health and Well
Being Board
7 Boards meet every 2 months 1 Board meets every 3 months and 1 Board meets
every 6 months.

Most of the Learning Disability Partnership Boards have 20 30 members which include:

Most of the Boards are organised by someone who works for the Council. This graph
shows how the different Boards are organised

How each Board works in detail is different and no one model existed most of the
Boards are similar but different in some of the ways they work.

What will happen next:

At the Yorkshire and Humber Leadership meeting in February 2015 we will talk about
- What difference Partnership Boards make
- What is important for how Partnership Boards work in the future
- Good ways of working we can share