Speakeasy N.O.W. Health Checkers

Who we are and what we do We are all members of Speakeasy NOW Who we are and what we do We are all members of Speakeasy NOW. We are a user led charity based in Worcestershire.

We decided to visit 7 of the 17 practices looked at in our 2015 report.

We wrote to the practices in July 2016 and were able to arrange visits to 5 of them.

What we found The Good News All 5 practices were ready and willing to discuss these things with us and were prepared for our visit.

All 5 practices had made improvements and acted upon some or most of the recommendations.

3 practices had been advised to use easy read templates and information to support people with their annual health checks. They were now doing so regularly.

These documents were available on each practice website as well as at the surgery.

1 practice had made easy read changes to their practice information leaflet.

Some practices involve parents and carers to represent the views of patients with learning disabilities.

This will help to make sure they are represented, but it would be better for patients with learning disabilities to speak up for themselves whenever they can.

4 practices had been advised to work more closely with link nurses and were now doing this with good results.

3 practices were advised to involve patients with learning disabilities in giving feedback. All 3 had worked hard on this.

2 were using an Easy Read document telling people how to complain, make comments or give compliments.

All 5 practices showed a good understanding of the needs of patients with learning disabilities and the reasonable adjustments that could be made to improve their service to them.

What could be better? We saw that there was very little Easy Read information available on notice boards. This is really important for people with learning disabilities.

Easy Read Information It helps people with learning disabilities to understand what is happening and to be prepared. It helps them to make informed decisions. It empowers people with learning disabilities.

4 practices needed to improve planning for young people moving to Adult Services. We were able to explain why this is so important.

Plans need to be in place for young people with more complex or lots of different health needs.

GP’s need to be part of this planning process GP’s need to be part of this planning process. They need to be aware of any health needs that may be difficult to meet or to access in Adult services.

Conclusion We were very pleased to see the work that GP practices had done to improve their services for people with learning disabilities.

We think it would be good to make annual checks on a number of GP practices to make sure the good work is maintained.

Speakeasy NOW is also working with NHS England on a Health Quality Checkers project.

We are one of 5 organisations in the pilot for this scheme We are one of 5 organisations in the pilot for this scheme. NHS England will be visiting CCG’s to explain about this in more detail.

This is an exciting opportunity for us This is an exciting opportunity for us. We will be able to provide more widespread Quality Assurance checks for health services using an accredited NHS England toolkit.

We will be looking for 1 GP practice in Worcestershire to take part in a trial in the very near future. Please let us know if you are interested.

Thank you for listening to us today Thank you for listening to us today You can contact us on: 01905 774247 www.speakeasynow.org.uk