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Kent and Medway learning disability and autism strategy

Co-producing Kent and Medway’s learning disability and autism strategy

NHS Kent and Medway, Kent County Council and Medway Council, have been working together as part of the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System, to write a three-year strategy for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

It will set out how health and social care services plan to support people.

Throughout 2024/25 we worked with people with lived experience of learning disabilities and autism, their families, carers and professionals to co-produce the strategy.

Following an initial launch event with 90 attendees, which included an online ideas board, then ran two in-person workshops and seven online workshops, attended social care roadshows and ran an in-depth workshop for members of the Integrated Care Partnership board in their August 2024 meeting. In total we worked with over 200 people to understand what was most important to people and how the system could work together to support them.


Key themes for improvement are:

  1. Access to diagnosis
  2. Right care and support available when required
  3. Security (financial, jobs, housing and environmental sustainability).
  4. The people who support have the right values and skills
  5. Being accepted and valued by people around you
  6. Being safe
  7. Having a purpose


The themes and findings of this work are being used to draft a strategy, owned by all three organisations, which will be consulted on in summer 2025.

Co-producing Kent and Medway’s learning disability and autism strategy

NHS Kent and Medway, Kent County Council and Medway Council, have been working together as part of the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System, to write a three-year strategy for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

It will set out how health and social care services plan to support people.

Throughout 2024/25 we worked with people with lived experience of learning disabilities and autism, their families, carers and professionals to co-produce the strategy.

Following an initial launch event with 90 attendees, which included an online ideas board, then ran two in-person workshops and seven online workshops, attended social care roadshows and ran an in-depth workshop for members of the Integrated Care Partnership board in their August 2024 meeting. In total we worked with over 200 people to understand what was most important to people and how the system could work together to support them.


Key themes for improvement are:

  1. Access to diagnosis
  2. Right care and support available when required
  3. Security (financial, jobs, housing and environmental sustainability).
  4. The people who support have the right values and skills
  5. Being accepted and valued by people around you
  6. Being safe
  7. Having a purpose


The themes and findings of this work are being used to draft a strategy, owned by all three organisations, which will be consulted on in summer 2025.