Expert Guides

Learning disabilities

Posted: 24 April 2008 | Subscribe Online

Around 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability. This article provides facts about learning disabilities, as well as the latest news and jobs in learning disability services. It also looks at what services are available to adults with a learning disability, children with a learning disability and parents with learning disabilities.

What is a learning disability?

A learning disability may be mild, moderate or severe and affects the way someone learns and communicates. People with a mild learning disability may not need much support whereas people with severe learning disabilities may need more support and help with things like shopping. People with learning disabilities may also have a physical disability.

The latest learning disability jobs

What causes learning disability?

There are many different causes of learning disability and often it is not possible to say why someone has a learning disability. But most learning disabilities are caused by the way the brain develops – before, during or soon after birth:

Facts – from Mencap

* 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability.

* 200 babies are born with a learning disability every week.

* 9 out of 10 people with a learning disability get bullied.

• There are more than 29,000 people with a severe or profound learning disability who live at home with carers aged over 70.

Legislation

The white paper Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century was published on 20 March 2001. It was the first white paper on learning disability for 30 years and the proposals in the white paper were based on four key principles: civil rights, independence, choice and inclusion.

Valuing People

Learning Disabilities Taskforce

The Learning Disabilities Task Force is a team of academic experts, representatives of voluntary organisations, health and social care professionals, family carers and people with learning disabilities themselves. The Task Force's job is to find ways to make the ideas in Valuing People, the learning disability White Paper published in March 2001, into reality. The Task Force meets four times a year to discuss and agree actions that will influence change to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities.