Learning Disability Data: Looking Beyond Scotland

This background report accompanied by 'Data on the lives of people with learning disabilities in Scotland: Short term actions for change', represents the first outputs from our second programme of research looking at the lives of people with learning disabilities.

Whilst our previous programme of work highlighted barriers and inequalities, this programme is aimed at finding solutions and evidence to enable change. Supporting how data and statistical coverage of people with a learning disability can be improved in Scotland is a key focus, and to be able to inform this it is important that we look beyond Scotland to understand what works well and what the common challenges are elsewhere.

This background report provides an overview of the definitions and data collected for people with learning disabilities in the other nations across the UK. It also summarises how these countries and other developed nations who are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) fair in terms of the availability of relevant data which can be routinely used to inform effective policy.