The Health and Care Act 2022 places a legal duty on all registered health and social care providers in England to ensure that their staff receive appropriate training in learning disabilities and autism.
The government’s preferred training programme to meet this requirement is The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism. The training is named after Oliver McGowan, a young man with mild autism and a learning disability who tragically died after being given antipsychotic medication, despite known previous adverse reactions and his clearly expressed wishes not to receive the medication.
His death highlighted the urgent need for improved understanding of learning disability and autism across health and care services.
