People with learning disabilities are often being denied their human right of fair access to health and care, the Royal College Nursing (RCN) says today [Wednesday 17 June 2026], as it releases a sobering new report into the state of learning disability nursing across the UK.

It comes as the College highlights new analysis of NHS data, which shows the number of learning disability nurses (LDN) has fallen by a third with those choosing to study the specialism across the UK collapsing to less than 500 students in 2025.

The review, Safety, Equity and Expertise: A UK review of learning disability nursing, says that the clear legal duties on health and care systems to provide equitable access to care to the estimated 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK under the Equality Act 2010 aren’t being reliably met due to a crisis in the nursing workforce.

A lack of LDN expertise across health and care, including in mainstream services and in key leadership roles, mean vulnerable people are receiving a level of care which often fails to adequately take into account their needs, the College says.

The College cites that LDNs expertise in developing in-depth knowledge of individuals over time which allows practitioners to work in partnership with their patients and support maintaining good health, prevent deterioration and reduce avoidable hospital admissions. They are critical to ensuring people with learning disabilities aren’t excluded, overlooked or harmed due to mainstream health and care services not being able to meet their needs.

Despite this, the UK-wide review found that the LDN workforce is declining with gaps being so significant that LDN has become ‘invisible’ or seen as optional to providers, with resources allocated elsewhere within current services.

The review calls for health and care workforce planning to be field-specific, with action taken to stabilise the LDN education pipeline and grow in line with the needs of the population.

The RCN’s analysis of NHS workforce statistics shows that the number of learning disability nurses (LDNs) employed by the NHS across the UK has fallen by 33% since 2009. However, with just 490 LDN students enrolling on courses in 2025, the College warns severe gaps in services could potentially widen. Overall, the last decade has seen a 40% fall in the number of students accepted onto LDN courses.

The latest Learning from lives and deaths – people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) report shows the median age of death of just 62.5 for people with a learning disability, compared with around 82 for the general population.

Within the RCN’s recent Last Shift Survey of nursing staff working across the UK, they found testimony from LDNs saying they felt devalued and their patients were being failed. One nurse described how working in a small learning disability service in a rural area was extremely challenging due to a lack of understanding of their patients’ needs by senior management.

Another nurse who said during their last shift that patients had received inadequate care in response to the survey, cited that staff pressures and a lack of LDN skills on her wards which was causing care to be compromised in their workplace.

Amongst the review’s ten recommendations to recover the profession from its current crisis, the College argues currently there is a lack of understanding from health and care services about the scale or distribution of learning disability nurses across all settings and that workforce planning must stop these roles being substituted and support the growth of this specialist field. It cannot continue to be seen as optional or supplementary. 

In response to the RCN’s publication of the review, RCN Chief Nursing Officer Professor Lynn Woolsey, said:

“The findings of this review must be a warning that we cannot continue this path where learning disability nursing is consistently undermined. It’s a profession that is central to the safety, equity and human rights of people with learning disabilities.

“Yet the learning disability nurse workforce is in absolute crisis, with workforce numbers falling while university student numbers also collapse. Their skills are too vital for this to be allowed to continue. The expertise of learning disability nurses has been poorly understood, inconsistently recognised, and insufficiently protected within health and care systems. Their contribution is repeatedly undermined and ignored in wide workforce planning and service delivery.

“This must change if we are to close the current inequity in care suffered by some of society’s most vulnerable people. People with learning disabilities deserve better. Learning disability nursing must be recognised by health leaders as the safety-critical profession it is and workforce planning must reflect their value and importance to individuals across society.”

Ends

Notes to editors

1. In 2025, the number of learning disability nursing students accepted onto pre-registration courses was 490, down 40% from 810 in 2015. Across the UK, the number of learning disability nurses employed by the NHS (full/whole time equivalent) has fallen from 7,083 in 2009 to 4,768 in 2025/2026, a reduction of one third (33%).

1. According to the charity organisation, Mencap, there are an estimated 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK, over 2% of the adult population.

3. The full list of recommendations within the report include:

1. Learning disability nursing must be explicitly recognised and protected as a safety-critical profession.
2. Workforce planning must be field-specific, evidence-led and aligned to where learning disability nurses actually practise.
3. Pre-registration education provision must be stabilised to protect the future workforce.
4. Placement capacity and quality must be expanded and modernised to reflect contemporary distribution of RNLDs.
5. Early career transition must be strengthened to improve confidence, safety and retention.
6. Career pathways must be clearer, more visible and better supported across systems.
7. The impact and value of learning disability nursing must be made visible through better measurement and narrative.
8. Employers and commissioners must better understand and deploy RNLD capability.
9. Learning disability-specific visibility must be maintained within integrated policy and service environments.
10. A co-ordinated, UK-wide programme of professional and policy work should be taken forward to sustain the profession.