Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy that there should be a learning disability liaison nurse in every acute hospital in England.

Staffing levels are the responsibility of National Health Service organisations, which must make sure the number of staff and skill mix of the workforce, reflects patient care needs and local requirements. It is therefore up to NHS trusts to make decisions about employing learning disability nurses.

The Strengthening the Commitment: The report of the UK Modernising Learning Disability Nursing Review (2012) centred on strengthening the capacity, capability, quality and leadership of the learning disabilities nursing profession to ensure that people with learning disabilities have access to the expert nursing care they need. The Department has set up a Strengthening the Commitment Implementation Group in England to take forward the recommendations including the employment of learning disability nurses within acute hospitals.