Care England Publishes Landmark Report and Toolkit on Choking Prevention for People with Learning Disabilities
Care England, the largest and most representative body for independent adult social care providers in England, today publishes Preventing Choking Deaths Among People with Learning Disabilities, a major new report and its accompanying toolkit at a Parliamentary event hosted by Gregory Stafford MP in the House of Commons. Due to the increase of choking related deaths in working age adults with learning disabilities and or autism, Care England is proud to have collaborated with sector partners on this report and toolkit with the aim of reducing these preventable deaths. The publication brings together evidence, practical guidance and sector insight to support providers to identify choking risks earlier, strengthen care planning, improve staff awareness and act before avoidable harm occurs.
Choking is a serious and often preventable cause of death for people with learning disabilities. Where swallowing difficulties, eating and drinking support needs, medication, communication barriers, or gaps in care planning are not fully understood or acted upon, the risk of harm increases significantly. The report documents how those risks arise, where current practice falls short, and what a consistent, proactive and person-centred approach to choking prevention looks like in practice. You can access the report here.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said:
“Every choking death that could have been prevented is a tragedy, and too many of them are preventable. People with learning disabilities must be supported to live full, ordinary and enjoyable lives, including around food and drink, in the place they call home and in the wider community. Underpinning that is proper assessment, good care planning, staff confidence and clear systems for managing risk. These are not optional extras. They are the foundation of safe care.
This report and toolkit move beyond identifying the problem. They give providers the practical resources to strengthen everyday practice, support staff, involve families and reduce avoidable harm. Care England is proud to have played a central role in this work. The collaboration it reflects, between providers, people with lived experience, regulators, legal experts and sector partners, is exactly what good looks like. Choking prevention must be embedded into care culture, not treated as a one-off training exercise.”
The report identifies a consistent pattern across care settings where choking risks are frequently identified, but the actions needed to address them are not always consistently understood, recorded, communicated or followed through. Risk assessments are not always updated when a person’s condition changes. Communication between professionals involved in a person’s care is not always adequate. Staff confidence in managing choking risks varies significantly between services and between individuals within the same team.
Peter Kinsey, Chair of Iris Care Group, said:
“This work has been driven by a straightforward but urgent concern. Choking risks among people with learning disabilities are often known, but the actions needed to address them are not always consistently understood, recorded, communicated or followed through. That gap between knowing and doing is where preventable harm happens, and it is a gap we can close.
The aim of this report and toolkit is to give providers something practical, not theoretical. It is designed to support frontline teams, managers and organisations to ask the right questions, spot the risks earlier and make choking prevention part of everyday care. I am grateful to everyone who contributed, and most of all to the people with lived experience whose voices shaped this work. This is about dignity and safety and about making sure that deaths which could have been prevented are never accepted as inevitable.”
The report calls for choking prevention to be treated as a standing priority within care culture, not something addressed through one-off training that fades from practice. It sets out what good looks like across risk assessment, care planning, staff development, multi-professional communication and the meaningful involvement of families and people with lived experience.
The toolkit provides downloadable resources in editable Word and PDF formats, alongside an easy-read version and supporting materials for use across frontline teams. It is designed to help providers take stock of their own systems, strengthen how risks are identified, escalated, recorded and communicated, and build the kind of everyday practice that makes choking prevention sustainable rather than reactive.
The full report is available to download here.
