Black Books (Personal Health Profiles) have been developed by Oxleas in line with the Equality Act (2010) to promote reasonably adjusted care for people with a learning disability. They are a hand held health record, belonging to the person with learning disabilities.
They have been designed to recognise the potential for several people to be simultaneously involved in the provision of support/care for people with a learning disability. As such, all health professionals are encouraged to make an entry in the black book. This will help people with learning disabilities communicate their health needs and current health interventions to the different people involved in their care.
Colleagues in primary care services have a specific contractual requirements to meet, in line with the enhanced service contract for annual health checks for people with learning disabilities which states that Health Checks should "integrate with an individual’s Personal Health Record and Health Action Plan."
For all other health professionals, it is recommended that at the very least, you can record who you are and what the over-arching plan of care is for the person you’re providing healthcare to. Oxleas have created some functionality within the clinical records system to electronically record who has a black book. The aim is to ensure everyone known to learning disability services receives a black book.
The books were updated in 2015. Features of the black book include:
If you are a local practice and would like more information on the black books, please contact your community learning disability nurses:
Extra pages can be downloaded and printed off. The pages are formatted two to a page so that they can be printed on A4 paper and cut in half. To access the pages, click on the relevant tab.