The Enhanced Support and Liaison Service (ESLS) six months on

Back in December 2024, the Enhanced Support and Liaison Service (ESLS) for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people (LDA) went live. Nearly six months on, we are sharing how we can help, what challenges we faced when we started our new service, how we overcame them, and how we have worked together to bring to life the vision that has been in the making for over 18 months.

The LDA Enhanced Support and Liaison Service (ESLS) operates countywide with a designated team base in Lincoln. We provide a service seven days a week from 8am to 8pm.

Our aim is to prevent unnecessary and inappropriate admissions and or placement breakdown. We ensure autistic people and/or people with a learning disability receive fair access to appropriate care and support through supporting mainstream community and inpatient mental health services in the application of reasonable adjustments.

Our team is made up of nurses, intervention workers, psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, a psychiatrist and many more who will help tackle any specific issues people may have.

We also have a senior peer support worker with lived experience who is an integral and highly valued member of our multi-disciplinary team. She draws on her own lived experience to offer emotional and practical assistance to individuals and inspire hope. 

Not only does she keep us on our toes, but she challenges us on where we can be better, which helps us support people accessing our services so they can have the best possible experience.

To make sure we are being inclusive to people who access our services, we first had to enhance our inclusivity as a team. To do this, we have since put in place clocks that don’t tick, coloured paper for people who may be dyslexic and other adjustments. We need to create an environment that works for our team. We are living what we are preaching.

As we are new, we are still fine tuning our clinical pathways, and there is still room for improvement. We are hoping to work with our LPFT colleagues to refine and improve to really get this right, so any feedback is most welcome.