Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of people with a learning disability detained in inpatient units for five or more years.

In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support for people with learning disabilities and autistic people, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. This includes funding for children and young people’s keyworkers.

In November 2023, NHS England published national guidance setting out that a mental health in-patient stay for a person with a learning disability should be for the most minimal time possible and should be for assessments and treatments which can only be provided in hospital. This was followed by a letter from NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to local system partners across health and social care to ask that they have a concerted focus on supporting those people, who no longer need to be in hospital, in moving back into their local community in a safe and timely way, highlighting five key elements that are critical to enable this to happen.

NHS England continues to work with local system partners to ensure that they have a good understanding of those people that are in hospital who are clinically ready for discharge, including those people that have been in hospital for more than five years, and that there are plans in place to support these people in leaving hospital when they are ready to do so.

In July 2022, we published the Building the Right Support Action Plan, which sets out cross-government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with learning disabilities and autistic people. As well as overseeing implementation of the Action Plan going forward, the Building the Right Support Delivery Board will maintain focus on quality of care and on reducing long stays.

To help ensure that a greater proportion of people with mental health needs, including those with learning disabilities, will be supported in their community, NHS England is investing £36 million over three years as part of the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Inpatient Quality Transformation Programme.