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 meet targets to discharge people with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism from health and care settings.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed to implement the Building the Right Support national plan to achieve at least a 50% reduction in the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people who are inpatients in mental health hospitals by 2023/24. The Long Term Plan commits to an extra £4.5 billion a year for primary care and community health services by 2023/24 to reduce preventable admissions to inpatient services. This includes developing seven-day specialist multidisciplinary services and crisis care.

We will provide £74 million, £62 million in England, over three years from 2020/21 to support discharge for people with a learning disability and autistic people from hospital into the community. In England, the first year of funding of £20 million has already been paid through the Community Discharge Grant to all nominated lead local authorities.