Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust are committed to making sure we follow the NHS England commitment, to make sure children and young people with a learning disability, autism, or both, have the right to the same opportunities as anyone else, this will include:
- Getting the right support
- Being treated with respect and dignity
- Having a home within their community
- Getting the right support to stay healthy, safe and fulfil their lives
- Develop and maintaining relationships.
For the above to work, services need to be right both in the community and inpatient setting, this will involve working with parents/carers and the child/young person to work together and do everything we can to transform care for children and young people. Stopping over medication of people with a learning disability and how medicines affect children and young people is currently being investigated alongside the adult services, care Education and treatment reviews for children and young people also should be in place.
We also want to support children and young people to ensure they are on the dynamic support register and encourage families and carers to make sure children and young people with learning disability and/or autism should be included on the dynamic support register. Being on the register helps BSMHFT have a good understanding of our population of children and young people with a learning disability and or autism who are at risk of admission or going to other out of area placement.
Children and young people can have a person-centred approach to their care which is developed with them and their families or advocates across our services including education for young children and young people. (NHS England)
Special educational needs and disability (SEND)
NHS England states ‘A child or young person has special educational needs and disabilities if they have a learning difficulty and/ or a disability that means they needs special health and education support. This shortened to SEND.
