Day opportunities for people with a learning disability

Project Background

This Demonstrator project (September 2024 to August 2025) involves two partners improving day opportunities in different areas of England. Persona Care and Support runs day opportunities in community centres across Bury, Greater Manchester, and the Royal Borough of Greenwich provides and commissions day opportunities in its south London borough.

Alongside IMPACT, Persona is reconfiguring its day opportunities around the aspirations of people with learning disabilities, building on a review conducted by NDTi. Whereas in Greenwich, the council is leading a broad programme to improve the support people access from a multi-use building (the hub) and an array of community services and activities (the spokes). The council established this ‘hub and spoke’ model following a 2022 consultation process. Collaborating with and drawing evidence from people with learning disabilities and their families and carers is central to the work in both areas. This Demonstrator is paying particular attention to working with people who have profound and multiple learning disabilities.

An evidence review produced in January 2025 is informing our work.

Initial Evidence Review – Word
Initial Evidence Review – PDF

What are day opportunities, and why are they important?

Day opportunities support people with learning disabilities to do things that matter to them – such as socialising, doing hobbies, learning and working – while ensuring they receive the care and help they need each day.

A wide range of organisations, spanning independent providers, small businesses, charities and councils, deliver these services and activities across various community settings. Unfortunately, many people with learning disabilities have limited access to day opportunities, and some services offer narrow and mundane activities and restrict people to isolated buildings. Improving day opportunities can, therefore, play a vital role in how people progress in life and participate in communities.

What improvements do we want to make?

The Royal Borough of Greenwich

  • Strengthen the hub and spokes by improving the coordination, variety and quality of local day opportunities.
  • Share power with residents through peer-led activities and community services.
  • Shape future services for priority groups, including young people transitioning to adult services and autistic adults with complex needs.

Persona Care and Support (Bury)

  • Reconfigure day opportunities to focus on aspirations, progression, and what matters to each person.
  • Use co-production to shape services, prioritising people with profound and multiple learning disabilities in planning and decisions.
  • Develop varied, accessible and flexible activities that help people learn and gain more independence.

Project Progress and Outputs

Project progress (September 2024 to June 2025)

In Greenwich, our work has focused on:
  • Designing and running a co-production group based within the Greenwich hub for day opportunities to inform service improvements and review activities.
  • Gathering evidence on the delivery of day opportunities across the borough.
  • Strengthening collaboration across council teams and local partners to prioritise improvements to the hub and spoke model.

In Bury, progress so far has included:
  • Involving over 50 people in structured research conversations, comprising people attending day opportunities and their families and carers.
  • This research has generated rich insights into what people value and aspire to within day opportunities.
  • Planning the reconfiguration of Persona’s day opportunities service, which will take place from summer 2025 onwards.
  • Developing a co-production approach that will guide and shape the reconfiguration process.

Upcoming outputs (July to August 2025) will include:

  • Practical resources to support co-production with people with learning disabilities.
  • Recommendations for local authorities and providers on improving the coordination, variety, and quality of day opportunities.
  • Evidence and learning from involving people with learning disabilities and their families and carers.
We are also keen to share learning from this Demonstrator through workshops, events and publications. You can contact Oli Smithson ([email protected]) if your organisation is interested in collaborating with us.

Project Staff

Oli Smithson

SENIOR STRATEGIC IMPROVEMENT COACH

I am a health and social care specialist with a background in service improvement and leadership in the charity sector. 

I joined IMPACT from the Health Foundation, where I led grant funding and strategy work on health and social care innovation. My interest in social care formed while working as a support worker at the beginning of my career. IMPACT offered a unique opportunity to combine my experience of service improvement with my desire to make a difference in social care, particularly for adults with learning disabilities.