Learning Disability Services in Lincolnshire
There is a Section 75 agreement arrangement (National Health Service Act 2006) between Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (LICB), under which the Learning Disability Service teams carry out certain health related functions on behalf of Health (LICB). The partners agree that LCC shall act as Lead Commissioner to commission both health and social care in exercise of the Council Functions and NHS Functions in respect of Adult LD Services. Health (LICB) contributes to a pooled fund to enable the Adult Care Learning Disability service to deliver health and social care provision.
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) offers a range of services to support people with learning disabilities in the community.
The service works with individuals, families, social care, and health partners to enable adults with a learning disability living in Lincolnshire to receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
They provide specialist health support to people with learning disabilities who require assessment and/or treatment for their physical or mental health, including support with behaviours of concern.
The service includes:
- a single point of access (SPA) for all referrals;
- three community hubs – include a multi-disciplinary team which provides a range of specialist learning disability professions;
- Enhanced Support and Liaison Service (ESLS).
The service works with adults over the age of 18 who have a learning disability and associated physical and/or mental health needs who are registered with a Lincolnshire GP.
Learning Disability Community Team practitioners can make referrals to the SPA by completing the Learning Disability Service Referral Form in conjunction with reading the Learning Disability Service Referral Guidance. Both documents can be found in Section 11 Service Specific Procedures in the the Local Resource Library.
The service is provided via community hubs, based at the following sites:
- Beech House, Boston;
- Units 1 and 2, St George’s Site, Lincoln;
- Johnson Community Hospital, Spalding / Sycamore Centre, Grantham.
There are also a number of satellite clinics which are used to enable choice and care close to home, when required.
The community hubs provide an integrated multi-disciplinary approach to supporting people with a learning disability. Each hub has specialist nurses, psychology, Positive Behavioural Support (PBS), physical health liaison nurses (for acute hospital care, GP and out patients), psychiatry, occupational therapy (OT), physiotherapy and speech and language therapy (SaLT).
In each hub there are liaison nurses for physical health that provide a link between GP, Hospital and Outpatients; they do not provide Learning Disability Nursing (this is provided via Lincolnshire County Council). The liaison services work with local health services, individuals and carers to ensure equal access to mainstream services, helping to develop reasonable adjustments and provide appropriate training for professionals.
The overarching aim of the service is:
- To prevent unnecessary and inappropriate admissions and / or placement breakdown for autistic people and/or people with a learning disability.
- To ensure autistic people and/or people with a learning disability receive fair access to appropriate care and support through supporting mainstream community and inpatient mental health services in the application of reasonable adjustments.
The service will work with individuals as long as is required to reduce immediate risks, but on average this is expected to be for no longer than 12 weeks of enhanced support. During this time, we will focus on individual need which primarily relates to their learning disability and/or autistic meltdowns/shutdowns. These individuals may have co-occurring mental health needs. To ensure the right support at the right time, the LDA Enhanced Support and Liaison Service (ESLS) will navigate to and work alongside other teams, to meet the need of the person. The LDA Enhanced Support and Liaison Service (ESLS) will try to match staff skills and knowledge with the presenting needs of each individual.
The LDA Enhanced Support and Liaison Service will work to intensify the support that an individual is currently receiving from within LPFT where required.
All services for NHS Continuing Healthcare, apart from Funded Nursing Care (FNC), are completed in-house by Learning Disability Practitioners who hold a Registered Nurse qualification. The Practitioners are the lead in this process and are responsible for collecting the evidence that is required.
The CHC Review Flow Chart can help to clarify the process for practitioners.
This process only applies to individuals who are over the age of 18, who have a diagnosis of Learning Disability and associated physical and/or mental health needs who are registered with a Lincolnshire GP. Once the NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment has taken place, this information is forwarded to the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (LICB), whereby they ratify the decision and send confirmation letters. All further reviews are also undertaken by the LD practitioners and forwarded to the LICB.
Funded Nursing Care
If, during the process of completing the Decision Support Tool, the recommendation is not NHS Continuing Healthcare but the person has needs that would be eligible under Funded Nursing Care, then LCC can make that recommendation as part of the NHS Continuing Healthcare process. However, once in receipt of Funded Nursing Care, any reviews for this will be undertaken by the LICB.
‘The Lincolnshire Learning Disability Partnership Board is working towards making things better for people with learning disabilities and their families in Lincolnshire.’ (LLDPB).
For further information see: Lincolnshire Learning Disability Partnership - VoiceAbility website.
Last Updated: August 12, 2025
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