Name: Oliver McGowan Awareness of Learning Disability and Autism Course
SKU: 34138
Price: 15.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

Description

OVERVIEW

Oliver McGowan Learning Disability and Autism Course

This course provides a practical introduction to Oliver McGowan Awareness of Learning Disability and Autism, helping learners understand the subject, recognise its workplace relevance and apply appropriate good practice within their role.

Why it Exists: It is named for Oliver McGowan, whose tragic and preventable death highlighted the urgent need for better staff training.
Primary Goal: To save lives by ensuring the health and social care workforce can provide safe, compassionate, and informed care to autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Legal Requirement: Autism and learninig disability training is now mandatory. The Health and Care Act 2022 requires CQC-registered providers to ensure their staff are appropriately trained.
The Official Standard: The online course is designed to meet this legal requirement and is the government’s recommended training for all health and social care staff.
Wider Impact: It upskills the workforce to provide adjusted care, helping to reduce health inequalities.

Adopting this training is a critical step in preventing avoidable deaths. The following animation provides more detail on why it is so important.

Duration 1 Hour CPD Points: 1

What You will learn?

Understanding Learning Disabilities
Course Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

Explain the core principles and terminology associated with Oliver McGowan Awareness of Learning Disability and Autism
Recognise why the subject matters in day-to-day practice
Identify common risks, concerns or situations relevant to the topic
Understand individual responsibilities and role boundaries
Apply appropriate good-practice principles in workplace situations
Communicate effectively with relevant people when issues arise
Recognise when advice, reporting or escalation is required
Use the learning to support safer, more consistent practice

On successful completion of the quiz, you will be awarded a CPD accredited Understanding Learning Disabilities free course certificate.

Lessons

Course Content

Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 1

📚 Course Introduction – Understanding Learning Disabilities

This section sets the stage for the entire course, emphasizing the importance of informed, compassionate care. The primary goal is to shift the learner’s perspective from simply recognizing a diagnosis to truly understanding the individual experience of people with learning disabilities and autism. It introduces the course structure and highlights its foundational role in improving patient safety and quality of care.

🕊️ Oliver McGowan

This segment focuses on the person behind the mandatory training.

The Story: It details the tragic and avoidable death of Oliver McGowan, a young man with a learning disability and autism, in an NHS hospital.
The Impact: Oliver’s death highlighted systemic failures, including a lack of understanding among healthcare staff regarding how to appropriately meet the needs of people with learning disabilities and autism.
The Legacy: The training is a direct response to this tragedy, making the need for better knowledge a statutory requirement to prevent future avoidable deaths.

🤔 What are Learning Disabilities

This point defines what a learning disability is, distinguishing it from general learning difficulties or mental health conditions.

Definition: A learning disability involves a significant reduction in intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities (social and conceptual skills, practical skills) that started before adulthood.
Key Criteria: The UK definition often relies on a triad of impairment: lower IQ, impaired social/adaptive functioning, and onset before age 18.
Spectrum: Emphasizes that learning disabilities vary in severity, ranging from mild to profound.

📋 Signs of a Learning Disability

This section explores observable indicators that might suggest an individual has a learning disability, particularly relevant for staff who may encounter undiagnosed adults or children.

Developmental Delays: Missing typical developmental milestones (e.g., speech, walking, toilet training).
Difficulties with Communication: Struggling to express needs, feelings, or understand complex instructions.
Challenges with Daily Living Skills: Trouble with money management, cooking, or personal hygiene without support.

🧩 Characteristics of Learning Disabilities

This expands on the signs by focusing on common features that can affect how an individual interacts with the world and with services.

Slower Learning: Taking longer to learn new skills or information.
Poor Concentration: Difficulty sustaining attention on tasks.
Behavioural Challenges: May include frustration, anxiety, or behaviours that challenge due to difficulty communicating needs or sensory overload.
Reliance on Routine: Often thrive with predictable structure and may struggle with change.

📝 Learning Difficulties

This segment is crucial for clarifying the difference between a learning disability and a learning difficulty.

Learning Difficulty (e.g., Dyslexia, Dyspraxia): Affects specific areas of learning (e.g., reading, writing, coordination) but does not impact overall intellectual ability. A person with a learning difficulty typically has an average or above-average IQ.
Learning Disability: Affects overall intellectual functioning and ability to manage daily life.
Co-occurrence: Stress that a person can have both a learning disability and a learning difficulty.

✅ Knowledge Check – Characteristics

This interactive element, usually a short quiz or scenario, tests the learner’s ability to distinguish between the various characteristics and definitions covered so far (disability vs. difficulty, mild vs. severe impairment).

⚡ Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

This section provides an overview of ADHD, a neurodevelopmental condition often co-occurring with learning disabilities or autism.

Core Symptoms: Persistent patterns of inattention (difficulty focusing) and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Impact on Care: Understanding ADHD is essential as it affects how a person receives and retains information, and their ability to remain still or wait their turn in a clinical setting.
Adjustments: Staff must be prepared to offer short, clear instructions and flexible waiting arrangements.

♾️ Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A detailed exploration of Autism, emphasizing the concept of a spectrum.

Spectrum: Highlights the wide variation in how autism presents, affecting individuals differently in terms of severity and specific traits.
Key Areas of Difference (The Triad of Impairment/Dyad of Impairment): Focuses on persistent difficulties in two main areas:
1. Social Communication and Interaction (e.g., non-literal language, understanding social cues).
2. Restricted, Repetitive Patterns of Behaviour, Interests, or Activities (e.g., adherence to routine, sensory sensitivities).

🔍 Asperger’s Syndrome (Historical Context)

While no longer a formal diagnosis in modern diagnostic manuals (it is now included under ASD), this point explains its relevance.

Definition: Historically referred to individuals with autistic characteristics who did not have a general delay in language or cognitive development.
Present Day: People who were diagnosed with Asperger’s may still use the term to describe themselves, and it often implies higher support needs related to social communication but preserved intellectual ability.

🔄 Learning Disability and Disorder Overlap

This crucial section addresses the high rate of co-occurrence (comorbidity) between these conditions.

High Incidence: Explains that a significant percentage of people with learning disabilities also have ASD and/or ADHD, and vice versa.
Compounding Needs: Staff must recognise that the presence of multiple conditions often increases the complexity of care needs and sensory sensitivities.
Holistic View: Stresses the need to treat the whole person, not just one diagnosis.

🔬 Causes of Learning Disabilities

This provides a brief overview of the diverse factors that can lead to a learning disability.

Genetic Conditions: Down’s syndrome, Fragile X syndrome.
Complications During Birth: Lack of oxygen, prematurity.
Illness or Injury in Early Childhood: Meningitis, severe head injury.
Environmental Factors: Exposure to toxins or severe deprivation.
Idiopathic: Stress that for many, the cause remains unknown.

✅ Knowledge Check – Disorders

Another interactive element to ensure the learner can differentiate between ASD, ADHD, and Learning Disability and understand the significance of their overlap in a care setting.

🛑 Core Difficulties (The ‘What Goes Wrong’)

This section focuses on the practical consequences of a lack of understanding in a health or social care setting.

Communication Barriers: Staff misunderstanding or ignoring non-verbal cues or behaviour as communication.
Diagnostic Overshadowing: Attributing a new medical symptom (e.g., chest pain) to the individual’s learning disability or autism, leading to missed or delayed diagnoses.
Sensory Overload: Failing to adjust the environment (bright lights, noise, busy waiting rooms), leading to distress, meltdown, and inability to cooperate with treatment.

👶 Early Detection

This emphasizes the critical value of identifying learning disabilities and autism early in life.

- Maximizing Potential: Early diagnosis allows access to therapies, educational support, and interventions that can significantly improve long-term outcomes, independence, and quality of life.
- Family Support: Provides families with the resources and understanding necessary to support their child’s development from a foundational stage.

Unit 2

🗣️ Communication

This section emphasizes that communication is a two-way process and that behaviour is communication. Staff are responsible for making their communication clear and accessible.

Types of Communication: Covers verbal, non-verbal (body language), and Augmented and Alternative Communication (AAC) methods like PECS and communication boards.
Adapting Communication: Strategies include using simple, concrete language, allowing extra processing time, and utilizing visual aids .
Good Practices: Highlights being person-centred, creating a calm environment, and consistently using the person’s preferred method.
Poor Practices: Focuses on harmful errors like Diagnostic Overshadowing and ignoring non-verbal signs of distress or pain.

⚖️ Rights and Adjustments

Reasonable Adjustments

These are legally mandated changes to services, policies, or environments to ensure equal access to care. Examples include offering quiet waiting areas or scheduling longer appointments.

Legislation

Staff must understand the legal duties:

Equality Act 2010: Enforces the duty to make Reasonable Adjustments.
Health and Care Act 2022: Makes the Oliver McGowan Training statutory.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA): Framework for supported decision-making and capacity assessments.

🍎 Dysphagia

Dysphagia

Defined as difficulty swallowing, it is a significant risk for individuals with learning disabilities due to the high risk of aspiration pneumonia.

Learning Disabilities and Dysphagia

Staff must be trained to recognize signs of swallowing difficulty (e.g., coughing, wet voice) and strictly adhere to Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) recommendations for modified diets and fluids .

⚠️ Safety and Reporting

Scenario – Managing Stressful Situations

Practical training on de-escalation techniques, focusing on identifying triggers, using calm language, offering choices, and providing a safe, quiet space. It stresses that physical restraint must be an absolute last resort.

Reporting Concerns

Details the duty to report suspected abuse, neglect, or poor practice immediately, following both internal and external safeguarding procedures.

On successful completion of the quiz, you will be awarded a CPD Care Certificate Standard 16 – Learning Disabilities Course certificate.

Who is this for?

Who is this Understanding Learning Disabilities training course for?

Learning Disabilities Training: Who Is It For?

This essential, introductory online course is designed for all health and social care professionals committed to providing high-quality, person-centred care to individuals with learning disabilities.

The training is set at Level 1 and is suitable for staff needing: inductions, refreshers, awareness training, or to meet the requirements of the Care Certificate.

Key Participants include:

Support Workers & Health Care Assistants: Frontline staff needing enhanced skills to deliver compassionate, tailored, and effective direct care.
Social Workers & Carers: Professionals who champion the rights and well-being of individuals, ensuring access to necessary support and services.
Specialised Nurses (Learning Disabilities): Experts responsible for assessing healthcare needs, providing interventions, and advocating for overall health.
Occupational Therapists: Professionals focused on promoting independence and skill development in meaningful activities.
Care Managers & Supportive Housing Staff: Supervisors and staff responsible for overseeing and creating safe, nurturing, and high-quality care environments.

Course Goal: By completing this course, participants will gain the knowledge and skills required to promote independence, respect dignity, and help individuals with learning disabilities achieve their goals in an inclusive environment.

Care Certificate Standard 16 – Learning Disabilities FAQ

Learning Disabilities And Autism Frequently Asked Questions

When will I receive my Autism and Learning Disabilities course?

Your course is instantly allocated to you upon completion of your purchase.

Is the Autism and Learning Disabilities course CPD accredited?

Yes, the Care Certificate Standard 9 – Learning Disabilities course has been assessed and awarded a CPD accreditation by the CPD standards office.

Do I receive a Autism and Learning Disabilities certificate

Upon successful completion of the quiz at the end of the course, you will be instantly awarded a CPD accredited Care Certificate Standard 9 – Learning Disabilities course certificate to download or print at home for free. We also have an option for you to request a hard copy of the certificate sent to your home or work address.

Can I retake the Autism and Learning Disabilities course to improve my grade?

Yes, the Care Certificate Standard 9 – Learning Disabilities course comes complete with unlimited exam retakes

Is this Autism and Learning Disabilities course ideal for refresher training, induction or to improve your knowledge?

Yes, the Care Certificate Standard 9 – Learning Disabilities course will aid refresher training. It will give evidence of an understanding for staff induction. It will evidence awareness and improve your knowledge aiding your current skillset. A certificate is awarded upon completion.

Can I purchase this Autism and Learning Disabilities course for other persons than myself?

We offer a complimentary learner management system to view the learner’s course progress, view quiz results and certification. We also offer a dedicated compliance matrix to aid with audits and inspections.

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Oliver McGowan Awareness of Learning Disability and Autism Course