Plans: Smith

The government has set out plans to overhaul services for the UK's 1.2 million people with learning disabilities

In a Commons debate on the Learning Disability white paper, published last March, health minister Jacqui Smith told MPs that over 210,000 people had severe and profound learning disabilities in England and Wales, and up 25 in 1,000 people had mild to moderate problems.

"Learning disabled people can be amongst the most isolated and disadvantaged groups in our society," she said. "Too often they have faced poor housing, difficulties in being able to work, difficulties in using transport, poor advocacy servicesand they have had too little ability to make and exercise choice over the care and support they receive."

The government is set to tackle a postcode lottery on local authority care and give users more say in the services on offer.

In a bid to overcome the isolation faced by many of the learning disabled - 70 per cent have no friend outside family, carers or other learning disabled people and many are said to suffer "prejudice, bullying and insensitive treatment" - the proposals set out four principles of rights, independence, choice and inclusion.

The proposals for an overhaul of the services provided for those with learning disabilities are the first in 30 years and will see a shift from long-stay hospitals to community accommodation, specialist local services for people with severe challenging behaviour and integrated facilities for children with severe disabilities.

National objectives will be set for services with targets and performance indicators aiming to extend choice and control for people with learning disabilities and the plan is to develop an integrated approach by health, education and social care providers to services for children with learning disabilities.

Service users are to be given more choice and control with access to better advocacy and direct payments and each person will have an individual health action plan.

A national information centre is to be set up and 1,500 people in long stay hospitals would be moved to community accommodation by April 2004.The white paper, Smith told the Commons, "will make a difference to the lives of people with learning disabilities, their families and carers".

Conservative health spokesman, Tim Boswell welcomed the proposals but stressed the importance of the voluntary sector in delivering better services for users and carers.

"The opposition has absolutely no problems with its objectives. We support the white paper and want it to work," he said."Organisations [such as Mencap] can add great value because of their hands-on experience and by communicating an element of passionate dissatisfaction to puncture any official complacency."