The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism launched

Following a long campaign led by Oliver McGowan’s mother Paula McGowan OBE, HEE and partners at DHSC, NHS England and Skills for Care are pleased to launch The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism elearning.

Oliver McGowan was a bright, kind and happy young man with a mild learning disability and autism. Oliver tragically died on 11 November 2016 in an NHS hospital and his death shone a light on the need for health and care staff to have better training in understanding, communicating with and treating people with a learning disability and autistic people.

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training aims to provide the health and care workforce with the right skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care to autistic people and people with a learning disability. The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a requirement that regulated CQC registered service providers must ensure their staff receive training on learning disability and autism that is appropriate to their role.

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is ready to access today and has been co-produced, trialled with over 8300 health and care staff and independently evaluated by NDTi. It comes in two tiers so all staff working across all CQC registered services can receive the right level of mandatory training. The elearning is the first part of The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and everyone in health and care needs to do this no matter where they work and what tier of training they require.

Later, staff, will need to complete their training by attending either a one hour online interactive session (for Tier 1) or a one-day face to face training (for Tier 2) both will be available in early 2023.

HEE is currently working with partners to ensure each Integrated Care Board (ICB) is supported to develop training capacity.

You can hear from Paula McGowan, Oliver’s mother launching the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and read the press notice.

Research has shown that on average, people with a learning disability and autistic people die earlier than the general public, and do not receive the same quality of care as people without a learning disability or who are not autistic. We want and need to change this. To ensure The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism elearning is shared widely, please disseminate this information across your networks. Attached is a communication toolkit, we hope you will find this useful.  

Please join with us and do everything in your power to prevent a story like Oliver’s from ever having to be told again. Launching this training is a vital step to help us all achieve this.

For further information, please visit The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism webpage , elearning programme webpage. or check Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training elearning – Final.