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Uncertainty about how money is being spent is hindering plans to help people with learning difficulties achieve full citizenship, according to a government taskforce report, writes Craig Kenny.

The paper predicts an explosion in the numbers of older people with learning difficulties over the next two decades and hints at high levels of unmet need.

The Learning Disabilities Taskforce estimates there are currently 985,000 people with learning difficulties but only 224,000 (22 per cent) are known to learning difficulties services.

The number of people over 60 with learning difficulties is predicted to increase by 36 per cent by 2021, while the population aged 20 and over is set to grow by 11 per cent in the same timescale.

There is also a large potential unplanned cost for social services in the fact that only half of carers aged 65 and over in England have a plan agreed, says the report.

But of the £4 billion spent annually on learning disabilities services, only 0.43 per cent is directly related to the Valuing People white paper, which set out plans to improve housing, support and access to healthcare.

Too much of the budget is being spent in areas which “bear no relation to a modern learning disabilities service,” says the report.

* Transforming the quality of people’s lives  - How it can be done. Financing Improved Services to People with Learning Disabilities from francesca.deakin@mencap.org.uk