Change that leads to better lives

Making reasonable adjustments to primary care services

Supporting the implementation of annual health checks for people with learning disabilities.

Reasonable adjustments are alterations made to the way services are delivered to help ensure that people with disabilities or other Protected Characteristics (in the terms of the Equalities Act) are able to use them as effectively as other people. They can apply to any sort of service, offered to the public. Services provided by public sector organisations like the NHS have particular responsibilities. This report is about general practice. A key reasonable adjustment in providing general practice (GP) care for people with learning disabilities is inviting them for an annual health check. The English Department of Health has had a programme for this since 2008 but asking people with learning disabilities to come for a health check needs a number of reasonable adjustments to the way many GP surgeries operate. This document begins with a background description of the health check programme, why it was set up and the evidence about its effectiveness. It goes on to provide examples of special arrangements which have been developed in different parts of the country to help make the health check programme easier to use. Some of these are in the form of links to websites and some are examples we have been told about.

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