Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of people with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism in inpatient units; and what progress she has made on implementing (i) community-based support and )ii) housing solutions to (A) prevent unnecessary admissions and (B) facilitate timely discharge in line with the Transforming Care Programme and Building the Right Support plan.

Through our proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act, we want to ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people get the support they need in the community, improve care, and prevent admission to hospitals. We will engage with expert stakeholders to inform implementation planning, including in respect of the development of strong community services.

Investment has been provided each year to enable local areas to develop community intensive support teams, community forensic teams, and crisis response 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for people with a learning disability and autistic people.

For 2024/25, NHS England has allocated £124 million of transformation funding for learning disability and autism services in local integrated care board areas. This funding includes money for local systems to reduce reliance on mental health inpatient settings.

In addition, NHS England has a housing capital programme, with £13 million available in 2025/26, to support areas to develop housing to help reduce the number of autistic people and people with a learning disability in a mental health hospital setting.

We are also providing an immediate in-year uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant of £86 million in 2024/25. This increase will fund approximately 7,800 additional home adaptations. This is on top of the £625 million paid to local authorities in May 2024.