Our project is called RESIDE (RElationships and Sexuality in Intellectual Disability Education) because it refers to a power or right belonging to a person. We believe that it is every Children and Young Person's (CYP) right to be provided with evidence-based, effective Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) so that they can make informed, safe choices about their relationships. Approximately 2.5% of the UK population have an intellectual disability (ID), equating to 1.5 million people, of which there are 286,000 children-180,000 boys, 106,000 girls aged 0-17 years. Young people with intellectual disabilities want friendships and relationships yet may have few beyond immediate family members, leading to an absence of social networks and increased isolation. Some may want intimate relationships that can involve sex, and some are sexually active. While for some, their relationships can be rewarding and fulfilling, others may experience harm and exploitation, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. In response, parents can seek to protect their family member from harm, further limiting life opportunities. Findings from our systematic review showed that no evidence based, rigorously evaluated RSE programmes for CYP with ID currently exist. While many schools create programmes, or use materials taken from online sources, these may not always be appropriate for pupils with ID. Many such programmes fail to take a life course approach to providing education about RSE which extends beyond their time at school. Our UK wide qualitative study showed that CYP wanted information on friendships, sex, contraceptive use, and abusive relationships while parents were concerned about safety (in-person and online), respecting boundaries and consent. Both CYP and parents wanted to learn about relationships and mental health. This project will build on established relationships with our project advisory group to co-produce an evidence-based intervention, informed by our previous work, to deliver RSE to CYP with ID. We will update our systematic review published in 2020, combine this with findings from our qualitative study and utilise a model of knowledge translation to create materials for inclusion in a RSE programme. We will create a bespoke website to host these materials and will test their acceptability with CYP with ID (n=90-120) and parents (n=90-120) via questionnaire across England, Scotland and Norther Ireland. We will also recruit CYP with ID (n=12), parents (n=12) and educators (n=12), to take part in semi-structured interviews to explore acceptability in greater detail. This information will be used to further refine the programme. In future phases of the project, we will seek to test the feasibility and effectiveness of the programme in increasing CYP with ID's knowledge and understanding of RSE, reducing unintended pregnancies and reducing sexually transmitted infections.

A recent public health strategy published by the Department of Health, Social Services & Public Safety entitled 'Fit and Well - Changing Lives (2012-2022)' [1] has shown that people with a learning disability (LD) represent one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in Northern Ireland (NI). In fact evidence shows that those with a LD across the United Kingdom (UK) are more likely to experience major illnesses, to develop them earlier, and die of them sooner than the population as a whole [2]. Furthermore, even with such a worrying health profile, the LD population is less likely to get some of the evidence-based annual health checks and treatments they need, and continue to face real barriers in accessing services [1] [3]. Most alarming however is the apparent invisibility of LD. Evidence suggests that such inequity often exists and persists among this population because they remain unseen [4]. At present there is no central register detailing the actual number of individuals with LD in NI. As a consequence it is not possible to evaluate the form, context or degree of inequality that may be experienced by this group. This in turn makes it impossible to tailor or to target services or to monitor health in terms of health inequalities for this population. Recently, a 'Research and Information Service Paper' submitted to the Northern Irish Assembly [9] noted that "...according to a review by Marmot in 2010 [10], health inequalities are avoidable and socially unjust...[and]...in order to reduce the steepness of the social gradient in health...actions must be universal, but with a scale and intensity proportionate to the level of disadvantage. Therefore, policies and strategies should target action at those experiencing greater social and economic disadvantage. This approach is termed 'proportionate universalism' [11] and it requires multi-agency working across local and central government, and the voluntary and private sectors" [12]. To begin to pursue and achieve proportionate universalism for the LD population of NI, a multi-disciplinary team comprising academic researchers from Ulster University (UU), University of Bristol (UofB) and senior representatives from the Public Health Agency (PHA), the Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs) the statutory sector (ARC, Positive Futures) and a LD service user group (COMPASS) aim to exploit, link and maximise the use of existing NI administrative data to (i) begin to expose, exploit and explore LD records wherever they reside in existing Northern Irish (NI) administrative datasets (ii) begin to consider best practice in, and strategize for, the future recording and identification of LD in NI (iii) formulate guidelines to tailor, target and implement support for individuals with LD across NI and (iv) establish an administrative data evidence base upon which to build future research, facilitate future data sharing and enable ongoing action to reduce the health inequalities faced by the LD population in NI. Specifically the study aims to (i) provide a geographical map of LD in NI using available Census data; (ii) profile the demography of the LD population using a range of socio-economic metrics; (iii) profile morbidity and comorbidity of health care problems among the LD population using the Enhanced Prescribing Database and Census health metric data; (iv) exploit NI Mortality data to explore the causes and contexts of death among the NI LD community and (v) stimulate and facilitate 'proportionate universalism' across the region through multi-agency collaboration across local and central government, and the voluntary and private sectors. While the LD population and the project's non-academic partners, the statutory (PHA and NHSCT) and voluntary (ARC, Positive Futures, COMPASS) sectors, will be the primary beneficiaries of the research, the team will also strongly influence how policy is commissioned, and how health care and health promotion services are delivered.