Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of health professionals working with people with learning difficulties and complex needs.

NHS England is currently working with local systems to understand the health workforce supporting those with a learning disability and autistic people. In 2020, the Chief Nursing Officer for England launched the ‘All-England Plan for Learning Disability Nursing’. In the last three years, there has been an annual increase in the number of registrations to the learning disability nursing programmes.

Since September 2020, all eligible nursing, midwifery and allied health profession students have received a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available to students for childcare, dual accommodation costs and travel. Additional funding worth £1,000 per academic year is also available for those studying certain courses, including learning disabilities nursing.