Learning Disability and Northern Ireland: Achieving Proportionate Universalism through administrative data research.

A multi‐disciplinary team comprising Secondary Data Analysis Initiative funded academic Research Team from Ulster University, University of Bristol and senior representatives from Public Health England, the Health and Social Care Board, the Public Health Agency (PHA), Positive Futures, The Association for Real Change (ARC), the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts and the service user group Compass Advocacy Network (CAN) aim to exploit, link and maximise the use of NI Census and Mortality data to begin to formulate guidelines to tailor, target and implement support for individuals with learning disability across NI.

Specifically, the study aims to:

– provide a detailed geographical map of learning disability in NI using Census 2011 data

– profile the demography of the learning disabled population using a range of Census based socioeconomic metrics

– profile morbidity and comorbidity of health care problems among the learning disabled population ﴾iv﴿ exploit NI Mortality data to explore the causes and contexts of death among the NI learning disabled community and

– stimulate and facilitate ‘proportionate universalism’ across the region through multi‐agency collaboration across local and central government, and the voluntary and private sectors.

Proportionate universalism recognises that to reduce the steepness of the social gradient in health, actions must be universal, but with a scale and intensity that is proportionate to the level of disadvantage experienced. This project seeks to redress the unique disadvantage status of one of society’s most vulnerable groups via analysis of the NIMS data.