About

This year is the eighth year that the NHS Benchmarking Network have provided comprehensive evaluation of trusts’ compliance with the national learning disability improvement standards for NHS trusts. The benchmarking project consists of 6 main collections this year:

Launched in November 2025

1. Organisational-level Survey

   The organisational-level data for the Learning Disability Improvement Standards project is submitted online through the NHS Benchmarking Network Members’ Area. It is completed by a nominated project lead, as well as other nominated staff members. The survey questions aim to collate data on policies and protocols within organisations’ activity, workforce and service quality.

   There have been a number of areas of focus for services provided to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people over the last few years. These include: the ability to flag people with learning disabilities and/or autism on patient systems, demonstration of reasonable adjustments to care pathways, promotion of anti-discriminatory measures and ensuring people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people are empowered to exercise their rights.

   Click here for the Year 8 Organisational-level Survey data specification

2. Staff survey

   The survey allows staff members to give their views on their trust and delivery of care to patients with a learning disability and/or autistic patients anonymously. Trusts across England were provided with a unique URL link to distribute to staff members who had provided care for patients with a learning disability and/or autistic patients. The URL link provided staff with access to a survey hosted by the NHS Benchmarking Network, which consisted of a series of multiple choice questions.

   The topics explored throughout the survey include: the ability of staff to identify what reasonable adjustments patients required, the involvement of patients and family carers in how care was delivered, and whether staff had received the necessary training required to meet the needs of people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

   Click here for the Year 8 Staff Survey data specification

Launched in January 2026

Following collaboration and scoping with NHS England and LD England, a further four components have launched in January 2026:

1. Regional patient focus groups

These groups are facilitated by Learning Disability England, with seven groups taking place regionally across England. Further information will be available soon.

2. Patient Survey

The Patient Survey is an online survey that has been designed to capture the perceptions of the quality of care and overall experience of services for people with a learning disability. The survey is to be completed by people with a learning disability over the age of 18 years old who accessed care in the last year. The Patient Survey can be accessed via a URL/QR code and can be completed with the help of a family member or carer.

A template promotional poster for the survey can be found here. This is an example poster that can be edited to suit your Trust. Trusts can also share the QR code/link to the survey through other means, such as letters, text messages, emails, etc.

Click here for the Year 8 Patient Survey data specification

3. Family/Carer Survey

The Family/Carer Survey is an online survey that has been designed to capture the family/carer perceptions of the quality of care and overall experience of NHS services for people with a learning disability. The survey is to be completed by a family member or carer of someone with a learning disability who accessed care in the last year. The Family/Carer Survey can be accessed via a URL/QR code.

A template promotional poster for the survey can be found here. This is an example poster that can be edited to suit your Trust. Trusts can also share the QR code/link to the survey through other means, such as letters, text messages, emails, etc.

Click here for the Year 8 Family/Carer Survey data specification

4. Case Note Review

Participating Trusts are asked to review 5 - 10 clinical case notes of patients with a learning disability who have been seen by the Trust during the last year. The pilot Case Note Review (CNR) element collects patient-level data on the care received by people with a learning disability. It is designed to complement the Organisational-level and Staff Surveys by providing a view of how care is delivered in practice, as recorded in case notes. The CNR supports triangulation of data across multiple sources, helping to identify variation in practice, gaps in reasonable adjustments, and examples of good care. Findings will be used to inform learning and quality improvement, strengthening understanding of how care is experienced in practice and where services can better meet the needs of people with a learning disability.

Click here for the Year 8 pilot Case Note Review data specification

Who can participate?

All Acute, Community and Mental Health NHS Trusts in England can participate and submit data to the core project. This includes organisations that provide universal services as well as those that provide specialist learning disability and autism services.

Getting involved

LDIS for NHS trusts opened for data collection on Monday 3rd November 2025. Go to the Member’s Area to register your organisation and start submitting your data, or click on the ‘data collection’ button at the top right-hand corner of this webpage. Data collection will be open until 31st March 2026.

Click here to access the Year 8 project guidance

LDIS for Health & Justice

The team are also scoping benchmarking projects for a number of services within the Health & Justice system including Prisons, Liaison and Diversion Services, Mental Health Treatment Requirement Services, RECONNECT services, Immigration Removal Centres, and Sexual Assault Referral Centres. The specifications for these projects are still being reviewed and timescales will be determined as soon as possible.

Timescales for the Health & Justice project will be confirmed in the near future.