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Learning from the Lives and Deaths of People with a Learning Disability and/or Autism (LeDeR)

When a person with a learning disability dies, a death notification is completed; usually by a health or social care professional and sent to the LeDeR Team to conduct a review.

What is LeDeR?

LeDeR is the Learning from the Lives and Deaths of People with a Learning Disability and/or Autism (LeDeR) which has been set up to identify learning and enable improvements in the quality of care our service users receive across the health and social care provision. LeDeR is commissioned by NHS England who have awarded funding for the trust to hold a permanent LeDeR Team for Kent and Medway.

What does the LeDeR Team do?

When a person with a learning disability dies, a death notification is completed; usually by a health or social care professional and sent to the LeDeR Team to conduct a review. The review will be assigned to a reviewer who will look into the details of the person’s care, support and treatment provided throughout their life; this will involve contacting families and carers as well as health and social care professionals involved. The mortality reviewer will then complete their review and write up the lessons learned and advise of any recommendations which are then fed into the LeDeR annual report; which in turn, helps to improve the overall quality of care for people with learning disabilities.

How does the process work?

  • The death notification is completed by the health or social care professional.
  • The LeDeR Team is then informed that a LeDeR notification has been completed.
  • The local area contact will assign the review to one of the mortality reviewers.
  • If a family member or next of kin is listed, a condolence card is sent out to let them know the LeDeR team are here and that they will be in touch soon.
  • The mortality reviewer conducts the review and obtains the health and social care records from GP’s, Social Services and hospitals.
  • The reviewer sends out an information pack along with an invite letter to be involved in the review to the family member (this is of course optional).
  • If accepted, the reviewer will set up a meeting with the family member to talk about the life and care of the relative that has passed.
  • Once the reviewer has collated all the information they need for the review, they submit the review which is then added into the LeDeR annual report.

How can you contact the KCHFT LeDeR Team?

Contact the team by:

0300 123 4195
kentchft.lds_lederinvest@nhs.net

For more information, you can have a look at the LeDeR website: LeDeR (NHS.uk)