Learning Disability Nursing task group call on NICE to establish evidence based guidelines for commissioning

Feb 032012

In recent years, the number of people training as learning disability nurses has been falling. This report presents some of the issues believed to be at the heart of this and presents some potential solutions.
The report includes an analysis of:

• the difficulties in reliably identifying national supply and demand problems with numbers of student places being commissioned
• the number and geographical spread of education and training courses
• key issues with clinical placements

The authors also present as problematic, the non-strategic way in which this specialist part of the National Health Service workforce is being commissioned, planned and managed.
They consider that there is a lack of strategic leadership in commissioning and delivering training for learning disability nurses and action is needed urgently to avoid what they describe as a compromised workforce.
In addition, it is argued that as there is clear evidence to show that not only do people with learning disabilities have more health problems when compared with the general population but also receive an inequitable from mainstream health services that is it critical that the National Health Service make the best possible use of its specialist learning disability workforce to help address the health burden and improve the quality of mainstream health service responses.
The authors conclude that:

Learning disability nursing has moved from a narrowly defined role, within long term care, to a much broader role within the National Health Service and beyond.

They suggest that a:

Unique interplay between four major factors; Higher Education issues, workforce issues, along with poor data and ‘intelligence’ issues, and field of practice issues collectively threaten and compromise this specialist workforce in the short to medium term.

They make a number of recommendations, including:

• Moving education commissioning to a regional commissioning model
• Consideration of a national recruitment campaign
• They also make a number of recommendations aimed at ensuring the involvement of LD nursing in work to improve the health and well being of people with learning disabilities, in work on preventable deaths and a range of new and emerging areas of practice, including working within ‘mainstream’ services.
• Finally, they call on the National Institute of Clinical Excellence to establish evidence based guidelines for future commissioning in learning disability, particularly for those with profound learning disabilities and complex needs.

You can read the full report here: Learning Disability Nursing: Task and finish Group: Report for the Professional and Advisory Board for Nursing and Midwifery – Department of Health, England. Bob Gates