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 address the decline in the recruitment of learning disability nurses.

We recognise the vital role that learning disability nurses play in supporting people with a learning disability and reducing health inequalities.

To support recruitment, the Department provides eligible healthcare students with a non-repayable grant of at least £5,000 per academic year via the NHS Learning Support Fund. Students undertaking priority specialisms, including learning disability nursing, can receive an additional incentive payment.

NHS England has also established a learning disability nurse expert group which aims to work with stakeholders to consider how we ensure sustainability of education programmes and attract people onto learning disability nursing and grow the workforce.

More widely, the Government is investing £65 million to deliver 2,000 additional nursing degree apprenticeships over the next three years. We will prioritise areas of greatest need and ensure that communities relying most on the National Health Service benefit from a stronger, more resilient workforce. The forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out how we ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.