Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what training the NHS offers on pathological demand avoidance.

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is most often understood as a characteristic experienced by or observed, or both, in some autistic people, but professional consensus on its status is still required. PDA is not a recognised and stand-alone diagnosis within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the International Classification of Disease.

There is a variety of training available for staff providing care to autistic people, although not specifically for PDA. The Health and Care Act 2022 requires that, from 1 July 2022, Care Quality Commission registered providers must ensure staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism, appropriate to their role. Individual employers are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role.

The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of the respective independent statutory regulatory bodies, who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses. It is the responsibility of higher education institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.

Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all emphasise the skills and approaches a healthcare practitioner must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.