Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made since February 2016 to protect and promote the rights of people with learning difficulties, in the light of the report by Sir Stephen Bubb <i>Time for Change: The Challenge Ahead</i>.

The Transforming Care programme is making progress in moving people out of inpatient settings. Local Transforming Care Partnerships reduced the overall number of people with learning disabilities and/or autism in mental health hospitals by 11% from October 2015 to December 2016, according to published data. This is line with the 35-50% reduction we committed to achieving by 2019 in Building the Right Support.

NHS England is supporting areas to put in place new preventative services, such as intensive community support teams, to support people at points of crisis so that they do not need to be admitted to hospital. NHS England is investing £10 million per year, matched by clinical commissioning groups, to support the growth in services such as these.

NHS England is also rolling out pre-admission care and treatment reviews to assess whether there are viable alternative options when making a decision to admit an individual. NHS England is making available £20 million in capital per year to support an expansion in community based support for people with a learning disability.

The Department is commissioning a full and independent evaluation of the Transforming Care programme, which will focus on measuring changes in quality of life and of care over time, to assess the impact of the programme on the lived experience of people with learning disabilities.