Key points from the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) State of Care 2024/25 Report

The 2024/25 CQC report (The state of health care and adult social care in England 2024/25 – Care Quality Commission) published 24th October 25, highlights persistent inequalities in care for people with a learning disability and stresses the urgent need for more inclusive, person-centred services and better support for family carers.

Here are the key points from the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) State of Care 2024/25 report that are especially relevant to people with a learning disability and their family carers:

• Barriers to GP access: Many people with a learning disability still face difficulties accessing GP services, including poor communication, lack of reasonable adjustments, and digital exclusion.
• Annual health checks: Uptake of annual health checks remains inconsistent across regions, despite their importance in identifying unmet health needs early.
• Diagnostic overshadowing: Health concerns are often misattributed to a person’s disability, leading to missed or delayed diagnoses.
• Inappropriate hospital admissions: Some individuals are still being admitted to mental health hospitals due to lack of suitable community-based support, contrary to the aims of the Transforming Care programme.

• Variation in care quality: While some services provide excellent, person-centred care, others fall short—especially in supporting autonomy, communication, and community inclusion.
• Staffing shortages: Workforce gaps continue to affect the consistency and quality of care, with high turnover and limited training in learning disability support.
• Supported living challenges: Access to supported living arrangements that promote independence is uneven, with long waiting lists in some areas.

• Carer burnout: Family carers report high levels of stress and exhaustion, often due to lack of respite care and limited support navigating complex systems.
• Involvement in care planning: Carers are not always meaningfully involved in decisions about their loved one’s care, despite being key advocates and sources of insight.
• Financial strain: Many carers face financial hardship, especially when they reduce work hours or leave employment to provide full-time care.

• Better integration of services: Health and social care systems must work more closely to deliver joined-up, person-centred support.
• Stronger oversight of community services: The CQC calls for more robust monitoring of services for people with a learning disability, especially those in supported living or receiving care at home.
• Listening to lived experience: The report emphasizes the importance of co-production—designing services with people with a learning disability and their families at the centre.

🔑 Person Centred Safeguarding
• The CQC stresses that safeguarding must be rooted in person centred practice, ensuring that individuals’ rights, preferences, and dignity are at the heart of all decisions.
• Joined up working between health, social care, and local authorities is essential to prevent people from “falling through the gaps” when risks are identified.
• The report highlights that when services collaborate effectively, safeguarding responses are quicker and more proportionate, reducing harm and distress.

🚨 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)
• Councils continue to face significant backlogs in processing DoLS applications, leaving many people without timely legal protection.
• Delays mean individuals may be deprived of their liberty without proper authorisation, undermining their rights under the Mental Capacity Act.
• The CQC warns that this situation places vulnerable people at risk and calls for urgent reform, noting that the planned Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) have been postponed.
• Families and carers often report frustration at slow responses, which can heighten stress and reduce trust in safeguarding systems.

• Joined-Up Services: Health and social care must work together to provide seamless, person-centred support.
• Better Oversight: Community services need stronger regulation to ensure quality and safety.
• Co-Production: Services should be designed with input from people with a learning disability and their families.
• Safeguarding: The need for faster Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) decisions to uphold individual rights, stronger accountability and oversight of safeguarding practice, and clearer national direction on the implementation of Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS).

To access the full report and listen to the audio version, use the link button below.

To access the full report in an easy read format, use the link button below.