Connect for Change:

an update on learning disability services in England

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Contents
Foreword from Mencap and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation

Executive summary

Recommendations

Workforce 5
Services 5
Learning disabilities and nursing in England

Learning disabilities policy in England

Services 9
Inpatient services

Community services

11

Joe 12
The disconnect

13

Workforce 13
Staffing levels

13

Nurse numbers

14

Skill mix

15

Student commissions

16

Future workforce

17

Strengthening rights

18

Service improvements

18

Commissioning 19
Integration 19
Case study: How Salford is making it happen

21

Re-provision of services

21

Conclusion 23
References 23

This publication is due for review in May 2016. To provide feedback on its content or on your experience
of using the publication, please email [email protected]
2

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Foreword from Mencap and the Challenging

Behaviour Foundation
Despite all the promises since Winterbourne View there has been a shocking lack of change on the ground
for individuals and families, meaning thousands of people with a learning disability are still in inpatient
units, often far from home, friends and family, where they are at increased risk of neglect and abuse.
We welcome that NHS England is now driving forward a programme to close inpatient units and ensure
that the right support and services are developed for people with a learning disability and behaviour that
challenges in their local communities.
It is vital that robust community support and services are developed so that people are properly
supported in their local community, otherwise people are at risk of placements breaking down and
ending up back in units.
Alongside housing and care providers with the right skills and well-supported and trained support staff, it
is crucial that there are professionals in the community, such as nurses, psychiatrists and psychologists,
with the right expertise in positive behaviour support to provide support to individuals, families and
providers. There also needs to be enough of them so that people do not have to wait a long time for the
support they need.
These professionals must be able to support children and adults with a learning disability and behaviour
that challenges early on, before behaviour escalates, not just at crisis point.
This report gives an important reality check. Robust community teams with the right expertise, who are
able to support people at the right time, in the right place, require investment. Professionals, including
learning disability nurses, with the right expertise in the community are a vital part of building the right
support to help thousands of people in inpatient units to move back to their local communities and ensure
that people get good-quality support early on to reduce the risk of them being sent to units.
Jan Tregelles, Chief Executive, Mencap and Vivien Cooper, Chief Executive,
The Challenging Behaviour Foundation.

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Executive summary
After the exposure of the abuse at Winterbourne View,
people with learning disabilities and their loved ones
were promised change. Nearly five years later there
has been little improvement to the lives of thousands
of individuals who were promised that the care and
treatment they receive would change for the better.
Despite numerous investigations and high-profile
reports, the pace of progress has been unacceptably
slow. Repeatedly, promises and ambitions have
not been translated into the action that is needed
to transform services. The Coalition Government
pledged to move all those wrongly placed in hospital
into more appropriate settings in the community by
July 2014.
This promise remains unmet.
The number of people in inpatient facilities actually
increased over 2015, showing a revolving door of
admissions and discharges; a system which is failing
thousands of people.
Why is the gap between the ambition and the
implementation so great? A key and critical factor is
the reduction and devaluing of the learning disability
workforce. The disconnect between workforce planning
and service design is magnified in this complex
health and social care setting. Without a skilled and
specialised workforce to treat and care for people there
will be no health and social care services.
In the past five years the learning disability nurse
workforce in the NHS in England has been cut by a
third; over 1,700 learning disability nursing posts have
been cut since May 2010. Five hundred and forty of
the jobs cut have been those of the most senior and
experienced nurses: there has been a reduction of
40% in band 7 and 8 nurses.
Learning disability student nurse training places have
also been cut by 30% over the past decade, with
numbers remaining consistently low since 2011. In
2016/17 learning disability nursing is the only field of
nursing education where, despite a national shortage
of nurses, the number of student places fell even
lower than last year.
The cuts made to learning disability nurse numbers
are the most dramatic reductions observed across all
fields of nursing in all NHS settings. If there was ever
an intention to phase out this specialised strand of
4

nursing, cuts to the workforce and the supply line are

sure-fire measures to achieve it.
Increasingly, learning disability services and the
workforce are being transferred to non-NHS providers.
Nurses have told us that in many cases this impacts
negatively on their terms and conditions, reporting
reductions in pay, annual leave and other benefits
when being forced to work outside the NHS.
With fewer newly qualified learning disability nurses
coming through than ever before, significant cuts to
jobs in the NHS, and large scale re-provision to the
independent sector, the RCN remains deeply concerned
about the learning disability nursing workforce.
Transforming and delivering high-quality services
does not happen as a result of reports and good
intentions. Learning disability nurses tell us this
approach has failed to deliver change in the past
five years. A dedicated workforce, sufficient in
numbers, with the right people, with the right breadth
of knowledge and skills, is what is needed to truly
transform care in this multi-faceted health and social
care setting.
Learning disability nurses are highly skilled nurses
who care and treat people with complex mental and
physical needs. Interventions by specially trained
learning disability nurses result in improved patient
outcomes and help people to live more independent
and fulfilling lives. These skilled nurses are part of
the solution to delivering integrated personalised care
and can lead the way in providing positive behaviour
support to those who need it.
The national initiative Transforming Care is finally
setting out a clearer pathway to shifting care from
hospitals into the community. It is still too early to
determine its success. But it is clear that further steps
must be taken to ensure that the workforce is in place
to support the transformation of the care provided in
frontline services.
As NHS England embarks on its course towards
growing community services and closing inpatient
facilities, it is critical that funding solutions are in
place to secure quality services over the long term,
regardless of the provider of care. Only with sustained
investment in both services and a skilled workforce
will people with learning disabilities and their families
finally see the change they have been waiting for.

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Recommendations
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) proposes the following recommendations to address the issues
highlighted in the report.

Workforce

Services

A long-term workforce strategy that connects

workforce planning to the transformation and
delivery of services for children and adults with
learning disabilities.

Ensure that quality community services are

commissioned to support the appropriate
transition of people from inpatient care to living
more independently in the community.

Every acute hospital should employ at least one

Learning Disability Liaison Nurse. By 2020/21 all
acute hospitals should have 24-hour Learning
Disability Liaison Nurse cover.

Establish long-term commissioning

arrangements of community services to protect
children and adults who rely on vital services in
the community.

Up-skill all general nursing staff to care for those

with learning disabilities and/or autism, or those
who display behaviour that challenges.

Newly commissioned services in the community

must provide support to children and adults,
and those who care for them, to help prevent
crises, and not just be available at crisis point.

An increase in the number of learning disability

student nurse training places to grow an
appropriately skilled workforce.

Positive behaviour support to be embedded

across organisations and training to be provided
to those who may be caring for someone who
presents behaviour that challenges.

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Learning disabilities and nursing in England

The number of people with learning disabilities
and/or autism who may also display behaviour
that challenges is steadily increasing. More
children and young people with learning
disabilities are living into adulthood with a range
of complex needs, and increasing numbers of
adults with learning disabilities and associated
health needs are living into older age. The number
of people with learning disabilities known to GPs
has gone up every year for the last six years.2

is appropriate to the needs of the individual and

their family.

It is estimated that in England in 2013 there were

1,068,000 people with learning disabilities,
including 224,930 children and 900,900 adults.

In the RCNs position statement on the role of

the learning disability nurse we highlight and
explain the value of learning disability nursing.
The role of the learning disability nurse is central
to supporting people, particularly those with
complex needs. Part of the role of a learning
disability nurse includes:4

The needs of people with learning disabilities are

changing. Some people with a learning disability
also have other physical and emotional conditions,
meaning that it is common for people to present
with multiple and layered physical and health
needs. A small number of people with learning
disabilities also display challenging behaviour.
Sometimes people with learning disabilities have
very complex needs that require care and support
from a range of professionals across health and
social care.
Developments over the past 20 years have meant
that the way that we treat and care for people with
learning disabilities has fundamentally changed.
It is widely agreed that people with learning
disabilities should live in the community and be
supported to live full and inclusive lives. Part of
this support includes access to specialists with
the knowledge, skills and experience that cover a
range of health needs.
Past investigations and inquiries have highlighted
the need for increased education and training of
health care practitioners to ensure that the diverse
needs of people with learning disabilities are met.
Health and social care practitioners must have the
knowledge and skills, or the ability to gain access
to specialists to provide person-centred care that

Nurses are a fundamental component of these

multi-disciplinary teams.
In England learning disability nursing is a distinct
strand of nursing with its own educational
framework: a specialised area requiring tailored
education and training.

undertaking comprehensive assessments of

health and social care needs
developing and implementing care plans
working collaboratively with health and social
care professionals
providing nursing care and interventions
to maintain and improve health and
promote wellbeing
providing advice, education and support
to people and their carers throughout their
care journey
enabling equality of access and outcomes within
health and social care services
providing education and support to promote
healthy lifestyle and choices
acting to safeguard and protect the rights of
people with learning disabilities when they are
vulnerable and in need of additional support.

Throughout the report the term people with learning disabilities will be used as an umbrella term to cover those with learning disabilities, autism
and/or challenging behaviour whilst acknowledging there are differences between these complex conditions
2
www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/publications/1241/People_with_Learning_Disabilities_in_England_2013
3
Identified at School Action Plus or statements in DfE statistics as having either a primary or secondary Special Educational Need associated with
learning disabilities
4
RCN (2014) Learning from the past- setting out the future: Developing learning disability nursing in the United Kingdom
www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/pub-003871
1

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Learning disabilities policy in England

Back in 2011 the BBCs Panorama programme
exposed the abuse of people with learning
disabilities in the private hospital, Winterbourne
View. The scandal led to the Coalition Government
stating that hospitals are not homes and pledging
to move all people with learning disabilities
who are inappropriately placed in hospitals, like
Winterbourne View, into community care by 1 June
2014. Despite the commitments set out in the
Department of Healths national policy response
Transforming Care: A National Response to
Winterbourne View Hospital the pledge was unmet.
In fact, in June 2014 there were still more people
with learning disabilities being admitted into
hospital than there were being discharged.
And now in 2016, the promise to move all
those inappropriately placed in hospital still
remains unfulfilled.
Due to the slow progress and the failure to meet
the pledge, the Chief Executive of NHS England,
Simon Stevens, commissioned Sir Stephen Bubb
to consider how a new national framework for
learning disability services could be implemented.
Sir Stephen Bubbs starting point was that in
the twenty-first century it is not acceptable for
thousands of people to be living in hospital when,
with the right support, they could be living in the
community. Therefore, one of the primary aims of
the proposed framework is to grow the community
provision needed to support people inappropriately
placed in hospitals to be able to live more
independent and fuller lives.
In November 2014, Sir Stephen Bubb published
Winterbourne View Time For Change and made
recommendations for a national commissioning
framework under which local commissioners should
secure community-based support for people with
learning disabilities.
Then, in early 2015, the Coalition Government
set up the Transforming Care for People with
Learning Disabilities Programme (Transforming
Care). The programme, led by NHS England, the
Local Government Association, the Association of
Directors of Adult Social Services, the Care Quality
Commission, Health Education England and the

Department of Health aims to improve the care for

people with learning disabilities, in particular by
shifting care out of hospitals towards community
settings. Transforming care for people with learning
disabilities is also a top priority in the NHS England
2015-16 business plan.
In February 2015 The National Audit Office (NAO)
published its report Care Services for People with
Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviour. It
identified a number of barriers to transforming care
services, as well as solutions, including developing
pooled budgets and developing specialist skilled
community teams.
In the same month at a Public Accounts Committee
focusing on the NAO report, Simon Stevens
committed to publishing a closure programme in
autumn 2015.
In June 2015 he announced fast-track sites that
would receive additional support for services
for people with learning disabilities. The fasttrack sites have now had access to a 10 million
transformation fund to support the work.5
NHS England also promised rapid and
sustained action to tackle the over-prescribing
of psychotropic drugs to people with learning
disabilities after research from various health
bodies showed that rates of prescribing were much
higher than with the general population. In the
majority of cases these drugs were prescribed with
no clear justification and use was prolonged, often
without adequate review. They also found there is
poor communication with parents and carers, and
between different health care providers.
The summer of 2015 also saw the publication
of Transforming Care Delivery Boards progress
report, which set out progress on the introduction
of Care and Treatment Reviews (CTRs), the fasttrack sites, the completion of the No Voice Ignored,
No Right Ignored public consultation and tests of
a new Learning Disability Skills and Competency
Framework for the workforce. The report states how
the Next Steps publication sets out a clear ambition
for a radical re-design of services for people with
learning disabilities.

Fast-track sites are Greater Manchester and Lancashire; Cumbria and the North East; Arden, Herefordshire and Worcestershire; Nottinghamshire;
and Hertfordshire www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/new-gov/mental-health
5

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Concurrently, Sir Stephen Bubb published his

interim report Winterbourne View Time Is
Running Out. He highlighted the areas where
some progress had been made but also gave a
strong warning to Government, commissioners and
providers that action needs to be taken urgently to
ensure the commitments of Transforming Care can
be met safely.
His report highlighted his concerns over leadership
and the fact that very little had been communicated
to key stakeholders on how the transformation will
be achieved. He also clearly warned that without
gearing up the capacity and response of providers,
clinical decision makers will be powerless to
recommend anything other than an inpatient bed if
they do not have alternatives.
The risk, he says, is a revolving door where people
are re-admitted into inpatient facilities because
they have been discharged into the community to
inappropriate provision. This revolving door has
serious implications for the health and wellbeing of
people and impacts their families.
At the end of the year, NHS England published
Building the Right Support, the national plan to
develop community services and close inpatient
facilities. This plan aims to shift money to the
community and to reduce the use of inpatient beds

by 35%- 50% over the next three years, including

the closure of the last stand-alone learning
disability hospital in England. NHS England will
also make 30 million of transformation funding
available in addition to the 10 million already
available for the fast-track sites.
In the wake of all this activity the RCN sought
the views of learning disability nurses to better
understand the impact policy initiatives have had
on the frontline since the exposure of the abuse at
Winterbourne View.
The RCN surveyed 1,100 learning disability
nurses from across the UK, including 771 nurses
in England. The survey included questions on
topics such as access to services, improvements,
community provision, impact on patients and
staffing levels. In addition, we carried out indepth interviews with nurses whose jobs have
been transferred outside the NHS to explore their
experiences in more detail.
This RCN research demonstrates just how slow any
progress has been since Winterbourne View. The
RCN also found that there is a worrying disconnect
between services and the workforce; both requiring
investment if care is to be truly transformed for
people with learning disabilities.

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Services
Inpatient services
Following Winterbourne View the Department of Health commissioned the collection of detailed information
relating to the prevalence of learning disabilities in England and access to services. The Health and Social
Care Information Centre (HSCIC) publishes monthly Assuring Transformation data around indicators such
as admissions, discharges/transfers, and length of stay in hospital. Recent data shows that there are still
thousands of people with learning disabilities in hospital despite plans to move people out of hospital.
Figures from December 2015 give a snapshot of the issue. At the end of the month there were 2,595 people
with learning disabilities in NHS-funded hospital care; however it is likely that the number is greater as 10
Clinical Commissioning Groups failed to provide data. In fact, the recent Learning Disability Census 2015
estimates there are 3,480 people with a learning disability in inpatient units.6
2,515 of the 2,595 patients identified in the Assuring Transformation data had been in hospital since the
previous month. There were 105 discharges/transfers from hospital but also 80 admissions.
Table 1 shows that although there has been progress, with the number of discharges increasing, there are
fluctuations in the monthly number of people being admitted to NHS-funded inpatient facilities. There
is clearly still the demand for treatment and assessment in hospital, largely because the community
provision needed to keep people out of hospital is unavailable.
Table 1: Number of people with learning disabilities admitted to and discharged from hospital
Discharges/transfer

Admissions

CCGs that submitted data

Feb-15

75

30

161

Mar-15

95

50

197

Apr-15

100

75

167

May-15

70

50

159

Jun-15

90

65

171

Jul-15

85

85

186

Aug-15

80

60

169

Sept-15

100

50

184

Oct-15

80

75

189

Nov-15

80

50

185

Dec-15

105

80

204

Source: Information provided from CCGs for Learning Disability Services Monthly Statistics - Commissioner census (Assuring
Transformation), Experimental Statistics
www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB17190/ldsm-feb-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB17448/ldsm-mar-15-exec.pdf, www.
hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB17634/ldsm-apr-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB17738/ldsm-may-15-exec.pdf, www.
hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB17860/ldsm-jun-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18173/ldsm-jul-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.
gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18486/ldsm-aug-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18793/ldsm-sep-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.
uk/catalogue/PUB19062/ldsm-oct-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19637/ldsm-nov-15-exec.pdf, www.hscic.gov.uk/
catalogue/PUB19833/ldsm-dec-15-exec.pdf

Health and Social Care Information Centre, Learning Disability Census 2015
www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19428/ld-census-initial-sep15-rep.pdf (p. 76)
6

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

This revolving door shows a system that is failing

people with learning disabilities.
Our survey of learning disability nurses suggests
that this is largely because the right services are
not in the right places. Seventy-three per cent of
nurses said that they have seen cuts to learning
disability services in their area in the past year.
Over half (52%) disagreed with the statement that
people with learning disabilities can access the
right care in the right place when they need it.
The inability to access the right care and support to
help people live independently can often result in
deterioration and the person having to be admitted
or readmitted into hospital.

Sixty-three per cent of nurses agreed or strongly

agreed that people with learning disabilities are
often in hospital for longer than they should be.
This view is reinforced by the HSCICs 2015 annual
Learning Disabilities Census Report, which shows
that the average length of stay for an inpatient
with learning disabilities is 4 years 11 months
(1,794 days) and on average a person stays 63.7
kilometres from home. 7
Figure 1 shows that according to Assuring
Transformation data, inpatient numbers did
increase over the first half of 2015 with numbers
remaining relatively stable since. At the same time
there was a significant and worrying reduction in
the number of NHS learning disability nurses.

Fig 1: CCG learning disability inpatient numbers and NHS learning disability nurse numbers January-July 2015

2,650

3,900

2,600

3,850

2,550
3,800

2,500
2,450

3,750

2,400

3,700

2,350
3,650

3,600

2,300

Jan-15

Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15

Jul-15

Learning disability nurses

Aug-15 Sep-15 Oct-15 Nov-15 Dec-15

2,250

Patients in hospital

Source: www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19670/nhs-work-stat-oct-2015-nur-area-levl.xls and Learning Disability Services Monthly

Statistics - England Commissioner Census (Assuring Transformation), Experimental Statistics March December 2015

Health and Social Care Information Centre, Learning Disability Census 2015
(www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19428/ld-census-initial-sep15-ref-tables.xlsx)
7

10

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Central to delivering Transforming Care is

discharging people from hospital or transferring
them to the most appropriate facility. The first
step in achieving this aim is reviewing the care
plans of people in hospital settings. As of midSeptember 2015 there had been 2,020 CTRs of
people in hospital.8 Learning from CTRs has helped
develop a new approach which helps to prevent
unnecessary admissions and identify people who
are at risk of admission.9 It is important that this
learning continues and is shared widely to help
tackle the large number of people with a learning
disability in hospital.
Following Mencaps report Death By Indifference in
2007 and the Health Service Ombudsmans report
Six Lives in 2009, steps were taken to help improve
the care of people with learning disabilities in NHS
general acute hospitals. One of the important steps
taken was the introduction of Learning Disability
Liaison Nurses.
Learning Disability Liaison Nurses help promote
access to services by directly supporting people
but also by developing hospital and community
systems, influencing policy and educating hospital
staff. However, freedom of information requests
from Mencap in November 2014 showed that 42%
of 165 NHS acute trusts did not have a Learning
Disability Liaison Nurse. Mencap also found that on
average, each trust only had 30 hours of learning
disability nursing cover out of 168 hours in the
week.10 The RCN survey supports these findings,
with 50% of nurses saying their employer did not
have an acute Learning Disability Liaison Nurse.
The RCN calls for every acute hospital to employ
at least one Learning Disability Liaison Nurse. By
2020/21 all acute hospitals should have 24-hour
Learning Disability Liaison Nurse cover.
Learning Disability Liaison Nurses need to have
the appropriate level of seniority so they can bring
about real change at the trust to improve the care
for all those with learning disabilities who access
hospital services. The RCN suggests that a similar
role should be rolled out within primary care and
community services so that the whole care journey
is covered.

Community services
The cornerstone to delivering Transforming Care
is to have an appropriate range of services for
people with learning disabilities in the community.
Worryingly, 85% of learning disability nurses say
there are not enough of the right services in the
community to support and care for people.
Despite the ambitions post-Winterbourne View to
improve community services, only 22% of learning
disability nurses agreed with the statement that
there are now better services in the community
than there were three years ago; 47% disagreed or
strongly disagreed.
For many people, the right support in the
community should prevent the need for inpatient
admission. However, there are situations where
a person with a learning disability does require a
period of inpatient assessment and treatment. It
is crucial, however, that they are able to access
an early discharge to an appropriate community
service with learning disability nursing support as
part of the package. The RCN fully supports the
commitment to transfer people out of inpatient
services, but is alarmed at the strong message
from nurses that the appropriate services are not
in place in the community to safely support the
closure of inpatient services.
The RCN fully supports the ambition to deliver new
services in the community, but emphasises these
services must be safe and appropriately staffed with
a skilled and caring workforce. NHS England should
ensure that only high-quality local services with
learning disability nursing support are developed.
The plan is to close some hospital facilities over
the next three years. The RCN is also concerned
that some hospitals and services are already
closing before robust provision in the community
is available, leaving people without the support
and help they need. In some cases commissioning
arrangements are changing and independent
providers are closing unsustainable services.
The RCN is aware that some independent providers
have already had to make strategic business
decisions to meet commissioners requirements
and have had to close a number of their hospital
services for those with learning disabilities.
Closures may happen at short notice with minimal

Building the Right Support

Next Steps
10

www.mencap.org.uk/news/article/public-loses-faith-nhs-failing-people-learning-disability

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

11

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

time for consultation with clients or staff. It can

be difficult for people with learning disabilities to
manage this change and it can be very unsettling.
Disruption, not properly planned and supported,
can have very serious consequences for a persons
physical and mental health.

that could be managed in other ways. Similarly,

restrictive practice should always be used as a last
resort, in a safe and positive manner.

To implement effective services in the community,

wider issues must be tackled. It is crucial that the
over-prescribing of people with learning disabilities
with psychotropic drugs is addressed. Medication
should not be prescribed to control behaviour

The RCN calls for positive behaviour support to be

embedded across organisations and for training
to be provided to those who may be caring for
someone who presents behaviour that challenges.

Positive behavioural support has been shown to

provide better outcomes for people.

Joe
Our son Joe is 40 years old. Hes a boisterous person,
with a wicked sense of humour. He loves being out and
about, and he has a big family who love him to bits.
Joe has a severe learning disability and behaviour that
challenges. He doesnt use many words.
When communicating with Joe, staff need to listen to
him and repeat back to him what he has said. They
must not try to pass it off with saying: Ok Joe, yes
mate, if they dont understand what he is trying to say,
as Joe will become frustrated and upset by this, which
will lead to incidents happening.
Joe had been successfully living with a friend in
supported living, but he became unsettled when
the manager and other familiar members of staff
left. Nothing was done by social services to change
his support despite his familys requests. After an
incident, he was detained under the Mental Health Act
and sent to a unit 130 miles away from home.
After 2 years, and battling with the authorities, we
managed to get him home.
He is now living in his own place with support. We
are so pleased that he is now back living close to
us. But we really worry about there being no proper

12

monitoring of Joes placement

by Continuing Health Care
who fund his service and no
ongoing involvement from
the community team to keep
under review how Joe is.
A learning disability nurse did support Joes transition
out of hospital back into the community. But this
support was short-term.
I think Joes package of care in the community is very
fragile. If Joe got into crisis again there is no named
community LD nurse to support Joe and the provider
someone who knows Joe well and understands his
needs. The community team has limited capacity so
there is no guarantee he would be able to see someone
straight away.
I worry that a crisis situation could easily result in Joe
being sectioned again.
I dont want Joe to even get to crisis point. I want
professionals in the community to be keeping track of
Joe and be there to provide back-up support early on to
Joe and his staff team if needed.
Sue, Joes Mum

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

The disconnect
The RCN has continually highlighted the disconnect
between workforce planning and service delivery.
In November 2014 we published Turning Back the
Clock? RCN Report on Mental Health Services in the
UK. The report exposed that despite pledges to
improve mental health care and grow community
services, the mental health nursing workforce had
been significantly cut. This is largely at odds with
the commitment to parity of esteem.
The recent NAO report Managing the Supply of
NHS Clinical Staff in England has also voiced strong
concerns about the reliability of local workforce plans
and the extent to which they account for changes in
how services are delivered. The NAO recommends
that all key health policies and guidance explicitly
consider the workforce implications.
Building the Right Support needs to go further in
considering the workforce and cost implications for
delivering the change that is required.

The NAO also demonstrates how the focus on

meeting efficiency targets and trying to balance
both top-down health policies and bottom-up
workforce planning can result in not having the
right people with the right skills in the right
services. Nowhere can this be seen more than in
the care for people with learning disabilities.
In relation to other key national workforce policy
proposals, the impact of changes to student
nurse funding and the move to student loans is
worryingly uncertain. There is a serious risk that
future learning disability nurses may be deterred
from entering the profession. There is also the risk
that removing the central commissioning of training
places will impact on nursing supply and that there
will be a failure to match national policy priorities
or address workforce shortages in specific settings
such as learning disabilities.

Workforce
Staffing levels
Staffing levels and overall workforce numbers
directly impact on the quality of care delivered to
patients. The RCN continues to be concerned about
staffing levels across all settings but there has
been a marked reduction in staffing levels across
learning disability settings in the past year. Nurses
reported falls in staffing levels in both the NHS and
independent providers. As Table 2 shows, 42% of
nurses said that they have seen the staffing levels
of registered nurses decrease over the past year.
Similarly, nearly a third (29%) of respondents said
that the number of health care assistants in the
nursing establishment had also fallen.

Table 2: Staffing level changes over the past year

Registered
nurses

Health care
assistants

Decreased

42%

29%

Stayed the same

39%

48%

Increased

12%

14%

Not sure/Dont
know

8%

9%

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

13

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Safe staffing levels are critical when caring for people with learning disabilities and those who present
challenging behaviour. The right number of nurses is needed to protect both patients and nurses and
to ensure that patients are receiving high-quality care and support. The National Institute of Clinical
Excellence (NICE) withdrew the work planned to produce a guideline for nurse staffing levels across
learning disabilities settings. The work will now be carried out by NHS Improvement and Quality in
conjunction with the Chief Nursing Officer. The RCN strongly supports this vital work.

Nurse numbers
Providers need access to a sufficient supply of learning disability nurses to safely staff settings. Table 3
shows that the total number of learning disability nurses in the NHS has fallen by a third since 2010. This
reduction of 1,726 registered nurses in learning disability settings is a serious concern.
Part of the reduction can be attributed to some NHS services being re-provided by non-NHS providers,
with nurses also being transferred. Unfortunately, at present there is no national data collection across all
providers showing how many nurses have been transferred outside the NHS, and how many nursing posts
have simply been cut.
However, the decline of learning disability nurses in NHS general acute and community settings impacts
on the entire health care workforce. The presence of specialist learning disability nurses can assist in the
upskilling of general nursing staff in all areas, as people with learning disabilities often require access to
the full range of health services for both mental and physical health needs.
Table 3: Learning disability nurses 2010-2015

May-10

May-11

May-12

May-13

May-14

May-15

Oct-15

Difference

%
change

Community
learning
disabilities

2,571

2,416

2,316

2,150

2,017

2,003

2,010

-561

-22%

Other learning
disabilities

2,916

2,508

2,249

2,156

2,047

1,754

1,752

-1,164

-40%

Total learning
disabilities

5,488

4,924

4,566

4,306

4,064

3,757

3,762

-1,726

-31%

www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB16933/nhs-staf-2004-2014-non-med-tab.xls
www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19670/nhs-work-stat-oct-2015-nur-area-levl.xls

Data over the past decade presented in Figure 2 shows a dramatic decline in the number of learning disability nurses. This is surprising considering what we know about the population of people with learning
disabilities being diagnosed earlier, living longer and having more complex health needs. The decline in
nurse numbers over the past 10 years also shows an erosion of the value of the learning disability nurse that
seems largely at odds with Transforming Care.

14

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Fig 2: Learning disability nurses 2005-2015

4,000

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Community learning disabilities

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Other learning disabilities

Note: 2005-2014 data September each year. 2015 is the latest data available from October 2015 provisional statistics.
www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB16933/nhs-staf-2004-2014-non-med-tab.xls
www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19670/nhs-work-stat-oct-2015-nur-area-levl.xls

Skill mix
Not only has the number of nurses decreased drastically, but HSCIC data shows that proportionately more
senior nurses have been lost in the NHS in England than in other Agenda for Change bands. Figure 3 shows
the 40% reduction in band 7 and 8 learning disability nurses; that is a loss of 540 senior NHS nursing posts.

0%

Apr-10
Jun-10
Aug-10
Oct-10
Dec-10
Feb-11
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11
Dec-11
Feb-12
Apr-12
Jun-12
Aug-12
Oct-12
Dec-12
Feb-13
Apr-13
Jun-13
Aug-13
Oct-13
Dec-13
Feb-14
Apr-14
Jun-14
Aug-14
Oct-14
Dec-14
Feb-15
Apr-15
Jun-15
Aug-15
Oct-15

Figure 3: Number of nurses in learning disability settings by AfC band 2010-2015

-5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
-25%

Band 5
Band 6
Band 7
Band 8

-30%
-35%
-40%
-45%
-50%

Source: Freedom of information request, HSCIC, 2016

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

15

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

The RCN survey goes further than these headline

figures, with 37% of nurses saying that they had
seen evidence of down-banding or downgrading at
their place of work.

Planned

Actual

When services are re-provided or re-organised

nurses are seeing their jobs downgraded and in the
long term their pay reduced when pay protection
clauses come to an end. Twenty-eight per cent of
respondents had seen their employers cut pay for
those caring for people with learning disabilities.
It is unacceptable that affordability challenges are
resulting in the downgrading of nurses and being
substituted with more junior and cheaper care.

2004/5

1,083

844

2005/6

960

706

2006/7

910

723

2007/8

798

617

2008/9

811

629

2009/10

755

723

Student commissions

2010/11

777

642

2011/12

614

574

2012/13

612

618

2013/14

876

603

2014/15

653

2015/16

664

2016/17

638

As shown in Table 4, the number of student

commissions has steadily decreased over the
past decade. The planned number of places
commissioned dropped by 18% from 2010/11 to
2016/17 and there has been a fall of 30% over the
past decade. The Heath Education England (HEE)
2015/16 workforce plan shows that providers are
predicting a decreased need for learning disability
nurses by 2019. HEE explains that this may in
part be a result of the planned shift to non-NHS
providers. However, the RCN shares HEEs concerns
that this is being driven by affordability concerns.
The HEE 2016/17 commission announcement has
seen student places fall by 26 places and does not
appear to be aligned to Transforming Care. The RCN
calls for an increase in learning disability nurse
commissions over the next few years to significantly
increase supply.

16

Table 4: Number of learning disability nurse places

commissioned: planned vs actual 2004-2016

Source: Dr Dan Poulter MP (www.parliament.uk/business/

publications/written-questions-answers-statements/writtenquestion/Commons/2015-02-09/223887/) and Health Education
Englands HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan 2016/17

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Future workforce
Learning disability nurses play an integral part in
supporting people to live independently and should
be trained in providing positive behaviour support.
Cuts to nurse numbers, senior posts and student
commissions over the past five years highlights
how undervalued the learning disability nursing
workforce has been despite this being a time of
transformation for learning disability policy.
In order to truly transform care, health and social
care providers delivering these services need to
deploy dedicated people, in sufficient numbers and
with the right skills and breadth of knowledge to
provide whole person-centred care.
As the drive towards moving people out of
hospital and embedding new community services
continues, it is important that the inpatient
learning disability nurse workforce is provided
with the support and training to re-skill to work in
community-based settings.
Part of HEEs ongoing work is in developing
and testing a new Learning Disability Skills and
Competency Framework. This work is expected to be
rolled out in early 2016. The RCN welcomes the new
framework but would emphasise the particular role
that learning disability nurses can play in upskilling
all health and social care staff and raising standards
when caring for people with challenging behaviour.
The RCN calls for a long-term (five-to-ten-year)
nursing workforce strategy that underpins
Transforming Care.

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

17

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Strengthening rights
One of the pillars supporting Transforming Care is
the commitment to help strengthen the rights of
people with learning disabilities. There has been
some progress in this area and the Department of
Health completed the No Voice Unheard, No Right
Ignored consultation.
In our response, the RCN highlighted that many
of the proposals seem to be covered by existing
legislation. The RCN agrees that NHS communities
should have the same duties as local authorities, to
put peoples wellbeing at the heart of what they do.
This includes making sure that people are helped
and supported to stay close to home for their care,
support and treatment in the least restrictive
setting as a first option wherever possible. 11
A central element of the proposals in relation to
strengthening rights is the right to challenge any
decision to admit or continue to keep a person
in inpatient care. When asked, 38% of nurses

agreed that people and their families are currently

empowered to challenge any decision to admit
them to inpatient services; 24% disagreed and 38%
neither agreed/disagreed.
In November 2015 the Government published its
response to the No Voice Ignored, No Right Ignored
public consultation. It set out action over a threeyear period. Many organisations were critical,
saying it was weak and did not meet the green
papers original vision of empowering individuals
and families to challenge inpatient admissions and
to have more control over their care and support.
Strengthening the rights of people with learning
disabilities must remain on the political agenda,
perhaps through amending or enforcing existing
legislation. The pace of change cannot be allowed
to slow now that the consultation response has
been published.

Service improvements
When asked for an overall opinion, only 16%
of nurses said they had seen improvements to
services in the past three years. Forty per cent said
services are about the same but 44% said they had
got worse. However, learning disability nurses did
identify some specific improvements:

A shift towards a more patient-centred approach

to deliver better-quality care.

Some patients had been moved closer to

home, and there were more placements in
community settings.

Greater emphasis on positive behaviour support

and increased amounts and quality of training.

Greater safeguarding measures and nursing

input into the process.
More robust Care Quality Commission
inspections and monitoring use of the Mental
Health Act.

11

18

Shared and more in-depth care planning.

Better access to primary care services and some
closure of inpatient units.

Increased transparency, with service users

being more involved in decision making.
More open approach to raising concerns and
whistleblowing with better policies in some areas.

www.rcn.org.uk/-/media/royal-college-of-nursing/documents/policies-and-briefings/consultation-responses/2015/june/1515.pdf

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Commissioning
There is great variation in the experiences of patients,
their families and nurses alike. The variation in the
quality of services available is unacceptable.
A key factor in improving future services is through
the effective commissioning of services. All
commissioners should be operating with the shared
understanding that hospitals are not homes and
that pooling funding across health and social care
will help with the provision of integrated services
for patients. The RCN supports Sir Stephen Bubbs
recommendation that local commissioners should
follow a mandatory framework; a step that should
help minimise the variation in service provision.
Detailed consideration must also be given to the
quality and capacity of existing services. Future
specialist services that are commissioned must
also have longevity.
Increasingly, the NHS and local authorities are
commissioning independent providers to provide
learning disability services. Some of these
independent providers are leading the way in
service design for assisting people with learning
disabilities to live as independently as possible.

However, NHS England must have clear oversight of

commissioning arrangements and assess whether
changes to commissioning may have an adverse
impact on patients.
The RCN is concerned that with some providers
changing regularly, mergers or the purchasing of
smaller enterprises there may be a negative impact
both on patients and the workforce.
It is argued that closing inpatient care facilities
will free up money that can then be reinvested into
community services, following upfront investment.
It is critical that the upfront investment is spent
effectively to grow community provision across
England, not just in the fast-track site areas.
The RCN welcomes the development of the 49
Transforming Care partnerships and hopes that
these will be key in commissioning the range of
community services needed across England, with
local people driving local change.
The RCN calls for commissioning and service design
to be linked to national and local workforce planning.

Integration
The current approach to the provision of learning
disability services is complex. At present, there is
differential entitlement to receiving them; free at
the point of delivery for health and means-tested
for social care. This has created a fragmented
system of health and care, often leading to peoples
fundamental needs not being met, and resources
being wasted through unnecessary duplication.
Recently there has been a national shift towards
a more integrated approach, joint commissioning,
pooled budgets and co-ordinated service, in order
to meet increasingly complex health and care
needs. This is especially important for people with
learning disabilities, who are more likely to need
to access a range of different services to meet both
their physical and mental health needs. The recent
service model for commissioners highlights the
need for access to specialist health and social care
support in the community via integrated specialist,
multi-disciplinary health and social care teams.

The move to integrate learning disability services

has been accompanied by an increased emphasis
on personalisation and the choice agenda, as
well as prevention-based approaches and a
more flexible use of funding. There is national
recognition that the current configuration of
services does not meet the needs of people and
their families in a coherent way. Therefore, the new
service model for commissioners is underpinned
by a strong emphasis on personalised care and
support planning, personal budgets and personal
health budgets.
Personal budgets, which are intended to deliver
tailored, personal care plans to service users, are
a core component of delivering integrated care.
Some adults with learning disabilities may already
have the right to a personal health budget through
NHS continuing health care. However, by April
2016, NHS England expects that personal health
budgets, or integrated personal budgets across

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

19

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

health and social care, should be an option for all

people with learning difficulties, in line with the
recommendations set out in Sir Stephen Bubbs
review. Where people are unable to manage the
budget themselves, it can be done on their behalf
via a virtual budget, or they can opt for more
traditional commissioned services. However, even
with commissioned services it is expected that
there will be a high level of co-production with
the full involvement of the individual, the carer
and the family or advocate to design and shape
the service.
In a bid to promote responsive care, a selection of
health care tasks are now able to be delegated to a
patients personal assistant via the care planning
process. However, important questions still remain
around the delegation, training and accountability
of personal assistants. There needs to be more
discussion as to how personal assistants will
be supported to take on these responsibilities,
trained in the new skills that will be required
and assessed to ensure competence. Given that
personal assistants can be employed either by the
budget holder, or by a third-party organisation,
thought also needs to be given to the pay and
conditions of the individuals who will fulfil these
roles. Additionally, a clear framework is required
for the effective delegation of clinical tasks to
personal assistants. It is vital that each member
of the nursing team is clear about their level of
accountability and that personal assistants are not
expected to deliver complex care tasks without the
appropriate competencies.
One of the key national initiatives supporting
these developments is the Integrated Personal
Commissioning (IPC) programme. This is a
pioneering initiative to blend health and social care
funding for some of the people with the highest
care needs, allowing them to direct how it is used
through personalised care and support planning,
and personal budgets. The IPC financial model
attempts to shift incentives towards prevention
and coordination of care, through the development
of an integrated capitated payment approach.
This is intended to align financial accountability
and outcomes. Nine demonstrator sites have been
selected to pilot this approach with a defined
patient cohort, and at present, four out of the
nine sites plan to include people with learning
disabilities at high risk of institutionalisation or
placement. This approach has significant potential,
but it will need to be monitored closely to determine
its viability.
20

Integration holds significant potential for people

with learning disabilities and the RCN welcomes
the increased drive towards person-centred and coordinated care. National integration programmes
such as the Integrated Personal Commissioning
programme, alongside locally led partnerships
(such as section 75 agreements), provide the
opportunity to improve the quality and experience
of care for people with learning disabilities.
However, the true benefits cannot be realised whilst
such initiatives remain piecemeal. In particular,
the rollout of integrated personal budgets must
be accompanied by investment in market shaping,
and a decrease in block contracts, if individuals
are truly to be able to access the services they
need. Commissioners will also need to address the
current use of NHS resources proactively to free
up money for personal health budgets and avoid
double funding.
The RCN survey showed that 40% of nurses had
seen evidence of integration in their area, with only
25% saying they had not. Thirty-five per cent of
respondents said they neither agreed nor disagreed
that there was evidence of integration in their
area. The integration agenda appears to be slowly
filtering through to frontline nurses. However, 28%
of nurses said that lack of integration was one of
the key barriers to improving care for those with
learning disabilities. There is still a worrying level of
variation across services in England.
Integration has significant implications for the
nursing workforce.
Increasingly specialist roles will need to be part of
a multi-agency community team, to deliver services
wherever people live, rather than in institutions or
building-based services. This will be a major shift for
some staff, especially for learning disability nurses
affected by the fast-track closures. The delivery
of care in the community will require a different
culture, new values and attitudes, as well as a much
more flexible and person-centred response. In
addition to these cultural aspects, a number of key
practicalities must be considered. For example, will
the move to working across local authority and NHS
boundaries affect nurses terms and conditions?
Who is responsible for ensuring that staff working
in multi-disciplinary teams have access to the
necessary training and development? To ensure a
smooth transition to a more integrated system, these
questions need to be answered. And soon.

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Additionally, community-based behaviour,

support and outreach teams will need to be
strengthened, with an emphasis on keeping people
as independent as possible in the community, and
preventing crises which might otherwise lead to

unplanned hospital or institutional care. Learning

disability nurses will also have an increasingly
key role to play in personalised care and support
planning, as well as supporting people with
learning disabilities in shared decision making.

Case study: How Salford is making it happen

Supporting people with a learning disability and
behaviour that challenges is everyones job social
care and health professionals, commissioners,
providers, housing, and childrens services.
Salford Council and NHS
It is not quick work you need a long-term strategy,
but the benefits are clear. The quality of peoples
lives is improving. Before, when we were sending
people out of area, money was just disappearing out
of Salford. Now we are spending money investing in
local services to ensure that people with a learning
disability and behaviour that challenges can have a
fulfilling life in Salford.
At Salford they work in partnership and the
community team is made up of both health and social
care professionals. Salford has a joint service with
a pooled budget which means no arguments about
continuing healthcare or what contributions health
and social care should be making. Salford City
Council and NHS Salford run training in managing
behaviour that challenges for everyone supporting
people with a learning disability including
independent providers, day services staff and respite
staff. The training involves families and focuses on
positive behaviour support. In Salford, they have one
Positive Behaviour Support policy for adults.

The policy covers health, local authority and the third

sector. It means that everyone is on the same page
and committed to supporting people with behaviour
that challenges to live in Salford. As well as making
sure adults do not have to go out of area to get their
needs met, Salford work with colleagues in childrens
services to support them to develop the one-policy
approach across education, health and the local
authority. This will equip childrens services with the
right skills, so that young people do not have to go to
school out of area, however complex their behaviour.
The service employs Learning Disability Nurses in a
range of roles including Team Managers, Community
Nurses (Co-ordinators), Health Facilitators and
Clinical Nurse Specialists, the nurses work as part of
the joint service alongside social workers, Psychiatry,
Psychology, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language
Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Art
therapists. Community Nurses also take the lead in
adult safeguarding with their patch areas and others
take the lead in specific areas e.g. epilepsy. The work
of this range of Learning Disability Nurses has been
vital to delivering good quality services in Salford for
people with learning disabilities.

Re-provision of services
Service re-design and the re-provision of
services to non-NHS providers directly affect
service users and their families. However, the
re-commissioning of services also has a direct
impact on employees, including thousands of
nurses and health care assistants.
Often when nurses are transferred from the
NHS to new employers this is done under TUPE

agreements.12 TUPE rules apply to protect

employees rights when the organisation or service
they work for transfers to a new employer. However,
they do not protect skill mix or staff numbers.
The survey and interviews conducted by the
RCN revealed that there was a broad range of
experiences. The type of experience was often
linked to the size of the independent provider and

TUPE refers to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 amended by the Collective Redundancies and
Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
12

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

21

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

whether it was a specialist learning disabilities

organisation or an organisation providing general
care across different specialities.
The RCN survey identified nurses who have had their
roles transferred from the NHS in the past three
years; 33% found it to be a positive experience, 45%
said it was neither positive nor negative and 22%
said it was a negative experience. This suggests
that a large proportion of nurses did not find the
experience negative but as the sample size of 24
was too small to make broad assumptions, the
RCN carried out a number of in-depth interviews
to further interrogate nurses experiences of being
transferred from the NHS to another provider.
Some nurses said that they had been more able
to implement creative ideas and solutions when
delivering services. Some nurses said that they had
more opportunities to work in business development
and management and felt that working in the
independent sector would help them progress into
management more quickly.
Negative experiences and concerns tended to
focus on the direct impact to nurses employment
contracts, including their terms and conditions and
benefits and the devaluation of the role.

Importantly, the reduction of the transport for work

allowance often impacts upon the service nurses are
able to provide to their patients. A vital part of being
a learning disability nurse is to support people to
live full, independent lives. Nurses reported that the
removal of a transport for work allowance often meant
that nurses were unable to take patients on visits;
sometimes visits that have become an important part
of their routine. This can have a significant impact on
a persons wellbeing.
Some of the other concerns raised by nurses were:
the impact that the transfer of services has on
patients, especially given the lack of consultation
with them and their families
the lack of induction into the new company or role
little or no clinical supervision in many
independent provider organisations, though this
varies depending on the size of the organisation
having to seek clinical supervision or nursing
leadership from outside the organisation
the impact of being the only registered nurse in the
care setting on the revalidation process
that for-profit organisations take cost-cutting
measures to increase profit margins at the
expense of patient care

Nurses were very anxious about changes to their

contracts and the terms of their TUPE agreements.
Specifically: undergoing a reorganisation and having
to reapply for a job at some point in the future;
changes to employment policies and practices;
having to reapply for their current job again; having
further TUPE agreements if their employer is decommissioned or the company are taken over; or that
they will be made redundant.

the impact of cuts to local authority funding

Terms and conditions are often eroded when a nurse

is moved to a non-NHS provider. Nurses reported
that there is often:

insufficient student placements in non-NHS

providers and that they were losing the benefit that
student nurses bring to a clinical or care setting

the need for some commissioners to better

understand the services they were commissioning
the need for some providers to have a better
understanding of both the complexity of needs
and range of services that are required in the
community
fear of being de-skilled in their new role

an annual leave entitlement decrease

the lack of opportunity to do additional training.

a change to pay dates

The RCN continues to be concerned about the erosion

of nurses terms and conditions when services are
re-provided to non-NHS providers. As more jobs are
cut within the NHS and services are re-provided to
non-NHS providers, learning disability nurses will
have even fewer opportunities to work within the NHS.
The RCN fears that this may make learning disability
nursing a less attractive option to prospective nurses.

a significant reduction in pension arrangements

the loss of bank holiday payments
a reduction or cancelling of unsocial
hours payments
a reduction in travel expenses
a reduction or cancelling of transport for
work allowance
issues over lone worker safety.
22

Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

Conclusion
The ambition to transform the care that people
with learning disabilities receive must continue.
Despite laudable policy ambitions to transform
care following Winterbourne View, thousands of
people remain inappropriately placed in hospital
because there are not the right services in the
community to support them. The pace of change
has been far too slow.
Learning disability nurses tell us that there has
been little or no improvement in learning disability
services for children and adults over the past five
years. Forty-four per cent of nurses told us that
they have actually got worse.
Separately, the learning disability nurse workforce
in the NHS in England has been cut by a third in

the past five years. Over 1,700 learning disability

nursing posts have been cut since May 2010. Of
these posts, 550 have been those of the most
senior and experienced nurses: there has been a
42% reduction in band 7 and 8 nurses. Learning
disability student nurse training places have also
been cut.
The disconnect between workforce planning and
service design is magnified in this complex health and
social care setting these need to connect for change.
Transforming Care is finally setting out a clearer
pathway to shifting care from hospitals into the
community. Highly skilled learning disability nurses
are part of the solution and are key to delivering
more integrated and personalised care.

References
Department for Health (December 2012),
Transforming Care: A National Response to
Winterbourne View Hospital (www.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/213215/final-report.pdf)
Department for Health (December 2012),
DH Winterbourne View Review Concordat:
Programme of Action (www.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/213217/Concordat.pdf)
Department for Health, Skills for Health and
Skills for Care (2014), A Positive and Proactive
Workforce (www.skillsforcare.org.uk/
Document-library/Skills/Restrictive-practices/
A-positive-and-proactive-workforce-WEB.pdf)
Health and Social Care Information Centre
(December 2015), Learning Disability Census
Report (www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/
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Connect for Change: an update on learning disability services in England

23

February 2016
Published by the Royal College of Nursing
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