Health and Care Bill

Debate between Baroness Jones of Whitchurch and Baroness Penn

Committee stage
Wednesday 9th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for this amendment. Like others, I pay tribute to her tremendous work on behalf of people with learning difficulties and autism, which we all acknowledge and respect.

The amendment would reinforce and hasten the implementation of and the legislative basis for the Government’s commitment to developing a mandatory training and professional development system for health and social care staff. It would also establish a statutory code of practice, to be updated every three years, setting out guidance on the content, accreditation, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of the training.

The NHS England pilots for the modules to support the development of the training are currently under way, as the noble Baroness said. They involve key stakeholders, including Mencap and the National Autistic Society. It would be helpful if the Minister could provide the Committee with an update on the progress and timescale for completing and assessing the pilots and for moving forward and implementing the new training system.

The amendment is comprehensive in terms of both amending the 2014 regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and setting out issues that the code must address, including the relevant core education and training frameworks and strategies applying to learning disabilities and autistic people. It also contains the definitions of autism and learning disability on which the code should be based.

In this debate, we are all sadly reminded of the tragic death of Oliver McGowan, who died after those treating him medicated his autism incorrectly. His mother’s petition and determined campaign for mandatory training is thankfully coming to fruition, so that we can ensure that all staff receive proper training and can develop the skills and experience needed to provide the safest and most effective care and support for people with learning difficulties and autism. Including the mandatory training requirement on the face of the Bill would be a major step forward and I look forward to the Minister’s response.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for bringing the important matter of staff training on learning disability and autism for the health and social care workforce before the Committee today. Evidence tells us that there is a pressing need to improve understanding and awareness of learning disability and autism among health and social care staff and that the staff themselves want this training. Introducing mandatory training is an important way in which we can address persistent disparities in health and care outcomes for people with a learning ability and autistic people. As we set out in the Right to Be Heard publication of November 2019, the Government have committed to requiring all NHS and social care providers who carry out regulated activities to ensure that their staff have achieved the learning outcomes relevant to their role.