Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels of knowledge within healthcare services to offer appropriate support to people with learning disabilities; and what steps she is taking to help ensure more staff receive sufficient training for that purpose.

The second annual ‘Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people’ report recommended the introduction of mandatory learning disability training for all health and social care staff to address existing health inequalities. As set out in Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, healthcare service providers must ensure that staff have the necessary training to carry out their roles and responsibilities.

From 1 July 2022, we introduced a requirement for Care Quality Commission-registered providers to ensure staff receive mandatory training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role, as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022.