The Healthcare Commission has done a national audit of services for people with learning difficulties.

It started on 10 January 2007.

An audit is a review of services which makes sure they are good quality and safe. It aims to find out how services can be made better.

The Healthcare Commission wants to make things better for people with learning difficulties, carers and staff.

We looked at services for adults and adolescents with learning difficulties provided by NHS and independent healthcare organisations.

How the audit worked

There were 2 stages to the audit.

In stage 1

We collected information - we sent out 2 types of questionnaires.

1 was filled in by unit managers.
Read the questionnaire for unit managers (pdf 137kb) (opens new window)

The other was filled in by the senior management team or board.
Read the questionnaire for senior management team or board (pdf 41kb) (opens new window)
These questionnaires showed there were 638 learning difficulty services to be covered by the audit. 

In stage 2

We thought it was important to visit the services so we could see what they were like for people with learning difficulties who use them. Peer review teams visited 154 services.

In each team there was:

• one person with learning disabilities or a family carer
• different staff from NHS or independent healthcare organisations

The visits involved a range of organisations who:

• had performed well
• needed to get better
• had been chosen in a random way.

A Healthcare Commission manager led each team.

Everyone in the peer review team was trained by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities.
Find out more about the British Institute of Learning Disabilities on their website (opens new window)

Reading PDF files