Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to ensure the retention and recruitment of Learning Disability Nurses as a result of the findings of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017.

The Government is committed to improving workforce capability in relation to learning disability across the National Health Service and social care and we have committed that there will be a response to the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review report and its recommendations shortly.

Last year, the Government announced a 25% increase in the number of nurse training places that will be available, starting in September 2018.

On 9 May 2018, my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Health (Stephen Barclay) announced £10 million funding for incentives for postgraduate students who go on to work in mental health and learning disability fields, as well as those postgraduates who go on to work in community nursing roles. The Government is considering the most effective way to implement the incentive scheme.

The Department is working closely with Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Improvement and Skills for Care on a range of measures to support increased recruitment and improve retention across the health and care system, including the learning disability nursing workforce. These measures include marketing campaigns to raise awareness and interest in careers in the NHS, an NHS Improvement programme to improve staff retention in trusts across England and bring down the leaver rates in the NHS by 2020 and arrangements to support flexible working to help staff to balance work-life commitments.