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A decline in the number of learning disability nurses in the UK has led to vulnerable people receiving a level of care that often fails to adequately take into account their needs, Â鶹ÊÓƵ report has found.

We’ve made recommendations to improve the future of learning disability nursing in Safety, Equity and Expertise: A UK Review of Learning Disability Nursing.

The report comes as the College also highlights new analysis of NHS data which shows the number of learning disability nurses has fallen by a third – while those choosing to study the specialism across the UK collapsed to fewer than 500 students in 2025. Meanwhile, demand for their expertise is increasing.

This means the 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.

People with learning disabilities continue to experience some of the widest health inequalities in the UK. This is often linked to failures in health and care systems to understand the needs of people with learning disabilities, leading to inadequate adjustments, and inconsistent access to learning disability nursing expertise.

Learning disability nurses play a critical role in addressing these disparities by providing expert, rights-based and person-centred care tailored to individual communication, cognitive and health needs.

In our report we’re recommending:

• recognising learning disability nursing as safety-critical; the profession should be explicitly protected in policy, commissioning and workforce frameworks as essential to patient safety, lawful care and health equity 
• the adoption of field-specific, evidence-led workforce planning 
• stabilising and safeguarding the education pipeline 
• strengthening early career support and progression 
• making the profession’s value visible and measurable.

Learning disability nursing staff play a key preventative role in reducing escalation, improving safety and system functioning, but this is rarely captured in metrics or decision-making.

We’re calling for urgent action by health leaders to address the declining number of applications to the field. We believe poor understanding of the specialty is limiting recruitment, progression, commissioning, and appropriate deployment of expertise.

RCN Chief Nursing Officer Professor Lynn Woolsey said the learning disability nursing workforce is vital but is in crisis. She said:

“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 wider 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."

Our report draws on the outcomes of Â鶹ÊÓƵ learning disability nursing workforce summit, alongside a national consultation involving a survey and focus groups with a range of stakeholders – including learning disability nurses, students, people with learning disabilities and carers. We’ve published this during (15 to 21 June).