Learning Disability and Autism Acute Diamond Standards

Home » Improve » Learning Disability and Autism Network legacy page » Learning Disability and Autism Acute Diamond Standards

Learning Disability and Autism Network legacy...

Working in partnership with the North East and Cumbria Learning Disability Network and Access to Acute (A2A) Network to support NHS Acute Trusts to deliver high quality, reasonably adjusted care to people with learning disability.

By adopting the ‘Diamond Standards’ Trusts will be able to meet the NHS Improvement Learning Disability Standards for NHS Trusts.

Introduction

The Learning Disability Diamond Standard Acute Care Pathways are about planned admission, emergency admission and discharge which are then underpinned by a core set of values and principles. They can be easily adopted and localised to each Acute Trust.

The aim of the pathways and workforce education package is:

To improve communication for people with learning disability across settings
To improve experiences of health care for people with learning disability
Improve quality of life for people with learning disability
Promote seamless care and disparity of service
To reduce premature mortality

This animation based on a real life case study to show how effective the diamond standards have been:

Health & Care Passports and Flagging

Alongside this a workforce education package was developed to support the acute workforce.

The pathways were refreshed in late 2025 and the autism diamond pathways were also launched.

To support people with a learning disability when in hospital, an easy read health and care passport has also been developed and a what to do when you are coming into hospital pack: