Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what general training all hospital and general practice staff are expected to receive in order to understand the needs of neuro-divergent and autistic patients; and what plans he has to improve the quality of such training in the future.

Under the Health and Care Act 2022, all Care Quality Commission registered providers are required to ensure their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism, appropriate to their role. This training will ensure staff can provide safe, informed care which caters for the needs of people with a learning disability and autistic people. The Oliver McGowan Code of Practice has been published to guide providers on how to meet the statutory requirement on learning disability and autism training under the Health and Care Act 2022. The Code became final on 6 September 2025. The Code sets out four standards which outline minimum training requirements including: expectations on training content at different levels; that training is co-produced and co-delivered with people with lived experience; and how training should be monitored and evaluated. The Code is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oliver-mcgowan-code-of-practice/the-oliver-mcgowan-draft-code-of-practice-on-statutory-learning-disability-and-autism-training

We are rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism (Oliver’s Training) to the health and adult social care workforce, which is the government’s preferred training package. Over three million people have completed the first part of this training, which is freely available on the NHS elearning for health hub. A long-term independent evaluation conducted by the University of Leicester is underway to assess the delivery and impact of Oliver’s Training.