Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to ensure that NHS staff are aware of the stopping over-medication of people with a learning disability pledge; and what steps are being taken to ensure that people with autism or a learning disability are not prescribed unnecessary antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs.

Through the ‘Stopping Over-Medication of People with Learning Disabilities’ (STOMP) initiative, NHS England and its partners are taking a number of actions to raise awareness and influence the behaviours of professionals in relation to the prescribing of unnecessary antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs.

The Royal Colleges of Psychiatry, Nursing and General Practitioners; Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the British Psychological Society have all undertaken a range of activity in this regard, including audits and the publication of guidance and other materials to promote STOMP to their members.

The Care Quality Commission is undertaking work to equip inspection teams with the awareness, knowledge and tools to assess whether good prescribing practice takes place in services that it regulates.

A STOMP pledge for social care providers and a self-assessment tool will published by the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group during March, with sign up to the pledge expected from across the sector. Additionally, a STOMP pledge is being developed and piloted with healthcare providers, which is expected to be rolled out generally across National Health Service and independent sector providers in summer 2017.