Redesign and reconfigure pathways around specialist services, crisis support and inpatient provision​

In the NHS Long Term Plan, a commitment was made to ensure that by 2023/24, children and young people (C&YP) with learning disabilities, as well as those who are autistic with the most complex needs, will have a designated Keyworker. In South Yorkshire, we have tailored this role, naming our Keyworkers "Senior Navigators" based on feedback from families who found the term "Keyworker" confusing. Since the service's inception in 2021, our team of 10 Senior Navigators has supported hundreds of children and young people across South Yorkshire. Their primary role is to assist C&YP who are currently inpatients or at risk of hospital admission. They ensure that these individuals receive the appropriate support at the right time, and they work to ensure that local systems are coordinated to fully address the needs of these young people. Whenever possible, our goal is to provide care and treatment within the community with the right support in place. We are now expanding this service and transitioning to a South Yorkshire hub-and-spoke model. This expansion aims to create a consistent service offering, build a resilient team, and increase our capacity to meet the needs of the C&YP who require this service the most.​

The LDA Safe Space initiative aims to address the challenges associated with unnecessary admissions into inpatient settings for individuals with learning disabilities and/or autism. The South Yorkshire LDA team have worked collectively with stakeholders including people with lived experience over the last few years to agree a concept of developing a suitable environment, which will be the safe space. The service will provide a safe space environment with 24/7 support to provide short term interventions for individuals  who are in crisis and potentially at risk of placement breakdown or admission into hospital. This service will be used when all other alternatives have been exhausted within the individuals home setting and where it is identified the environment is contributing to the individuals wellbeing and potential crisis.

The South Yorkshire Mental Health Learning Disability and Autism (MHLDA) Housing & Accommodation project is a joint piece of work to ensure a coordinated response from health, housing and social care when identifying housing needs for people with learning disabilities, autism and severe mental illness and effectively coordinates delivery to meet those needs. We know that having the right accommodation and housing contributes to peoples wellbeing and that lack of the right accommodation can mean people stay in hospital longer than they need to so this work supports the planning and delivery of ensuring we have a longer term housing needs assessment for more specialist accommodation needs.