Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the use of digitalised the Learning Disability Health Passport across ICBs.

NHS England published guidance in June 2024 on health and care passports, which are designed to provide health and social care professionals with essential information about people with a learning disability and other disabled people to ensure appropriate care and treatment. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/health-and-care-passports/

The guidance makes clear that the passport can be in a physical or digital form, or a combination of formats, and that embedding the passport should take account of local population needs, local digital strategies, and reasonable adjustments.

The National Health Service is working towards a digitally enabled health and social care system to allow information to flow between IT systems, care providers, and settings. However, there remains a significant digital inclusion gap for people with a disability, so digital approaches must remain inclusive and avoid excluding those experiencing digital poverty.

Local systems are therefore encouraged to make both paper and digital versions of the passport available, and to explore ways to convert paper-based passports into digital formats to support interoperability. This aligns with the principles set out in NHS England’s guidance.