Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal College of Nurses on the number of learning disability liaison nurses in hospitals.

Following the recommendations of the UK Modernising Learning Disabilities Nursing Review, led by the Four Chief Nursing Officers, a UK Implementation Group was set up to support the groups that were established at country level to oversee the development of action plans and onward progression against the 17 recommendations set out in the 2012 Strengthening the Commitment report.

The Royal College of Nursing is represented in the UK Implementation Group that meets regularly to monitor progress in each country and to provide support including workforce strategies to strengthen the learning disabilities nursing workforce. Learning disabilities nurses work within a diverse range of settings and the UK Implementation Group has set up a number of work streams to look at the needs of the workforce and improve hospital care for people with learning disabilities.

The Department has worked with the Royal College of Nursing over a number of years to produce annual events to raise the profile of learning disability nursing and promote the profession as an attractive career choice.