Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people with learning disabilities do not remain in hospital beds when there is no medical need for them to do so.

Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out to tackle health inequalities and offer people more holistic, on-going support in the community. It is important that people are discharged promptly from hospital with the right support, both for their outcomes, and to free up beds for other patients.

The Department is working to ensure that patients, including people with a learning disability, can leave hospital promptly by strengthening access to appropriate community-based services. Local systems, supported through the £9 billion Better Care Fund, are required to plan jointly for integrated health and social care that supports individuals to live independently. This includes commissioning supported living arrangements, residential care where needed, and tailored packages of domiciliary care.

For 2025/26, National Health Service trusts have been asked to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within acute hospitals, and to work with local authorities on eliminate the longest delays, starting with those of over 21 days.

NHS Operational Planning Guidance also sets an objective to deliver a minimum 10% reduction in the use of mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people in 2025/26. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework maintains this focus, with an ambition for a 10% year-on-year reduction up to 2028/29.