Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with NHS England to tackle diagnostic overshadowing of dementia symptoms for patients with learning disabilities.

The annual health check for people with learning disabilities should include a review of mental health, including signs of dementia, especially in adults with Down’s syndrome. People requiring an assessment for dementia should be referred to a clinician with specialist expertise in the mental health of people with learning disabilities. Assessment for dementia should be supplemented with tools devised for use with people with learning disabilities. Under the Health and Care Act 2022, from 1 July 2022 Care Quality Commission registered providers are required to ensure that their staff receives specific training on learning disability and autism, appropriate to their role. This will help to ensure that staff have the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and informed care.

To support providers to meet the statutory training requirement, we have been rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism to the health and adult social care workforce. This training includes content on avoiding diagnostic overshadowing and frequently co-occurring conditions. Over two million people have completed the e-learning package, which is the first part of this training, and over 1,700 trainers are delivering the interactive second part of this training across the country.

The Department funds dementia research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which includes research with people with learning disabilities. For example, the NIHR is funding a study testing the neuroimaging method of functional near infrared spectroscopy to detect cognitive decline in people with Down’s syndrome.