The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with learning disabilities and factors associated with better outcomes

There are about 1.5 million people with learning disabilities across the UK. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, people with learning disabilities were more likely to experience poorer health and wellbeing, restricted social lives and loneliness and poverty. The social retsrictions and changes in support during the COVID-19 pandemic may have made this worse. In this project we will ask 1,000 people with mild/moderate learning disabilities, and the carers of 500 people with severe/profound learning disabilities, about their wellbeing, health, living circumstances, the support they are getting, and the impact of COVID-19 on their lives. We will go back to people three times over the 12-month project so we can see if anything is changing over time and what is linked to better experiences for people. We will also ask extra questions about urgent issues that come up during the course of the project. These will be decided by working with collaborating organisations of people with learning disabilities and family carers, policy-makers and other organisations across the UK. We will analyse the information each time we run the survey so we, with collaborating organisations, can get information quickly to the wide range of people and organisations who can use it.