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Background

Campaign

In 2016, Oliver’s Campaign was born, following his tragic death in an NHS hospital. The campaign is led by Oliver's mother, Paula McGowan OBE, who believes that all health and social care staff need appropriate and meaningful training to help them to understand people who have a learning disability and autistic people.

In 2018, Paula launched a parliamentary petition to address this need, gaining over 56,000 signatures. The petition was successfully debated cross-party and as a result, in November 2019, the government published 'Right to be heard', its response to the consultation on proposals for introducing mandatory learning disability and autism training for health and social care staff. 

The response included a commitment to developing a standardised training package. The training draws on existing best practice, the expertise of people with a learning disability, autistic people and family carers as well as subject matter experts. 

Trials

The government commissioned the development of standardised training  and during 2021 training developed by three training partners was trialled across the health and care sectors. The National Development Team for Inclusion (NTDi), the independent evaluator, was appointed as the independent evaluator for the trials. Throughout the trial period we held regular stakeholder forums to keep people up to date. The fifth and final trial stakeholder forum took place on 25 May 2022, with over 650 people in attendance. You can watch the full recording of the event.

We celebrated the success of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism trial and looked ahead to the future, hearing from speakers including the Minister of State for Care and Mental Health, Gillian Keegan, Chief Nursing Officer for England, Ruth May, Oliver's parents, Paula McGowan OBE and Tom McGowan, experts by experience and Dame Caroline Dinenage DBE MP about what Oliver's training means to them. 

During the forum, NDTi reported its trial evaluation findings and you can access the overview in the evaluation slide pack. 

NDTi also produced a report summarising the feedback from the trials on involving experts by experience in the design and delivery of the training. The report looks at what worked well and what could be better. The learning can be used to inform future delivery and ensure best practice going forwards.

Evaluation reports:

If you require these reports in an alternative format, contact england.ommt@nhs.net.

The Health and Care Act 2022 

The government has  introduced, from 1 July 2022, a requirement for CQC registered service providers to ensure their employees receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role. This is to ensure the health and social care workforce have the right skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care to autistic people and people with a learning disability. This requirement is set out in the Health and Care Act 2022. 

The Secretary of State is required to publish a Code of Practice, which will make provisions about the nature of the training including the content, delivery and ongoing evaluation of the training. The government launched the consultation on a draft Oliver McGowan Code of Practice. The government has now closed the consultation on the draft Oliver McGowan Code of Practice. The consultation feedback is now being anaylsed. For more information and updates, visit the gov.uk Oliver McGowan code of practice consultation webpage.

Behind the scenes on The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training filming

Related Documents

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