The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people with disabilities from discrimination. The act outlines our legal obligation to provide the same standard of care to people with a disability as we would to anyone else. We also have a legal responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to our services to make them accessible to people who have a learning disability. To find out what a reasonable adjustment might be, the best people to discuss this with are the patients themselves.

NHS England requires providers of NHS services, including community pharmacies, to adhere to their Accessible Information Standard (AIS). To find out more about your responsibilities, read our Reflection on Practice column about the AIS.

HEE learning disabilities core skills education and training framework

In July 2016, Health Education England (HEE) published a new Learning disabilities core skills education and training framework. It sets out the core skills and knowledge that are common and transferable across health and care staff. This learning programme aims to support you to work towards achieving many of the competencies in this framework.