10/03/2026
We cannot tell everyone how much we worry about this. Learning Disability Nurses are so important. They've also been given a load more responsibilities with looking after Autistic patients too - and we're losing them.
Thanks to Amy Hodkin from Sheffield University on LinkedIn for this post that we're sharing here...
Something has been quietly disappearing in the UK.
Over the last decade, the NHS has lost around 2,400 Learning Disability Nurses in England, a reduction of roughly 44% of the workforce.
To put that into perspective, the UK has seen a similar rate of decline in the House Martin, a bird now on the conservation Red List because its population has fallen by about 45–50% in recent decades.
When wildlife declines at this scale, we rightly sound the alarm. We monitor it, study it, and act to protect it.
Yet the specialist nurses who support people with learning disabilities, who face some of the highest health and social inequalities in society, are disappearing at almost the same rate, with far less national urgency.
Learning Disability Nurses play a vital role across health and care:
• Reducing health inequalities
• Supporting reasonable adjustments in healthcare
• Preventing crisis admissions
• Working with families and carers
• Supporting people with complex needs across the lifespan
At a time when the number of people with learning disabilities is increasing, the specialist workforce designed to support them is shrinking dramatically.
This is not just a workforce issue.
It is a health equality issue.
If we want a system that delivers equitable care, we must invest in the workforce that makes that possible.
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