Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities, Experimental Statistics 2024 to 2025

Experimental Statistics are series of statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed for several reasons such as:

• Poor coverage
• Poor data quality
• Data is undergoing evaluation

Customers should be aware of the status and constraints of this data. The limitations of each measure are explained in the accompanying information in the publication.

This publication is classified as experimental statistics due to limitations in practice coverage. The publication includes data from participating practices using EMIS and Cegedim Healthcare Systems (formerly Vision). No data has been provided by TPP which accounts for around 40% of practices.

More information on experimental statistics can be found in:

ONS Guide to Experimental Statistics

GSS Guidance on Experimental statistics

NHS England regularly solicit feedback from users of its publications to inform future development. Feedback can be provided using this link

This publication aims to highlight health inequalities that could lead to the difference in mortality rate and health outcomes between those individuals with a learning disability and those without.

NHS England have worked closely with relevant policy teams to ensure the data collected and presented in this publication is the most useful and appropriate for policy makers and commissioners.  We also work closely with several charities and academics to ensure the contents of the publication meet the needs of as many users as possible. 

System suppliers play an important role, translating the specifications into code for their systems and managing the submission of queries to practice systems and collecting responses. Data is only collected from practices using EMIS and Cegedim Healthcare Systems. No data is collected from practices using TPP. This causes a gap as practices using TPP account for approximately 40% of practices.

Practice participation in this collection is voluntary, meaning practices must participate to give consent for data to be collected. The total national coverage for this publication each year is approximately 55%. Details of exact participation can be found in each year specific publication.

Data quality is generally considered to be very good for all GPES extracts. The data that is collected is 100% complete due to it being an automated extract.

Sub Integrated Care Board Location (SICBL) patient coverage for each year is provided as a csv in the publication. There are a number of SICBLs who have a patient coverage greater than 100%. This is due to the denominator being sourced from a different dataset (patients registered at a GP Practice) as it is not available in the data collected for this publication. In addition, data for earlier years is remapped to current SICBLs to make the dataset more usable for comparative purposes. The percentage of participating SICBLs with a coverage greater than 100% is shown in the table below.

Table 1: Percentage of participating SICBLs with patient coverage over 100%

Data from the previous financial year (e.g. 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025) is extracted from GP practice systems via GPES each year, with the exception of 2019-20 when five years worth of data was extracted. The extraction period lasts approximately 10-14 days and is usually in September. NHS England aim to begin analysis in October and publish in December.

In 2024-25 the following new indicators were added:

• - LDOB141 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register who are female and aged 50 to 69.
• - LDOB142 - Number of patients in the control cohort who are female and aged 50 to 69.

In 2023-24 the following new indicators were added:

• - LDOB133 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register aged under 25 who are currently treated with melatonin, as at the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB134 - Number of patients recorded in the control cohort aged under 25  who are currently treated with melatonin, as at the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB135 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register aged under 25 who have a diagnosis of autism and who are currently treated with melatonin, as at the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB136 - Number of patients recorded in the control cohort aged under 25 who have a diagnosis of autism and who are currently treated with melatonin, as at the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB137 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register who have a diagnosis of anxiety recorded in the 24 months up to the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB138 - Number of patients recorded in the control cohort who have who have a diagnosis of anxiety recorded in the 24 months up to the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB139 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register, who also have a diagnosis of autism, and have a diagnosis of anxiety recorded in the 24 months up to the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB140 - Number of patients recorded in the control cohort, who have a diagnosis of autism, and have a diagnosis of anxiety recorded in the 24 months up to the end of the reporting period.

And the following indicators for 2023-24 were removed:

• - LDOB037 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register who have an active diagnosis of chronic kidney disease stage 3–5, as at the end of the reporting period. 
• - LDOB038 - Number of patients in the control cohort who have an active diagnosis of chronic kidney disease stage 3–5, as at the end of the reporting period.
• - LDOB057 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register who have an active diagnosis of epilepsy, are currently on drug treatment for epilepsy and have a record of seizure frequency in the 12 months up to and including the end of the reporting period. 
• - LDOB058 - Number of patients in the control cohort who have an active diagnosis of epilepsy, are currently on drug treatment for epilepsy and have a record of seizure frequency in the 12 months up to and including the end of the reporting period. 
• - LDOB059 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s QOF learning disabilities register who have an active diagnosis of epilepsy, are currently on drug treatment for epilepsy, have a record of seizure frequency in the 12 months up to and including the end of the reporting period and have been seizure–free during this period. 
• - LDOB060 - Number of patients in the control cohort who have an active diagnosis of epilepsy, are currently on drug treatment for epilepsy, have a record of seizure frequency in the 12 months up to and including the end of the reporting period and have been seizure–free during this period.

More information on the indicators can be found in the Business Rules.