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Adults with Learning Disabilities

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. We need to improve front-line skills so that those statistics and the tragedy that they represent can be addressed directly. We need to ensure that whatever discipline the professionals may be in, they are aware of the issues faced by adult with learning disabilities. In social care, the work force proposals set out in "Valuing People Now" will be taken forward through a new adult social care work force strategy, to be published later this year. GPs and primary care practice staff will receive training and advice to help them meet the needs of people with learning disabilities; that is clearly essential if the annual health check programme that I mentioned earlier is to function well. Across the NHS, we have launched an awareness campaign to teach staff about the disability equality duty, leaving them in no doubt about their responsibilities to uphold the patient's human rights. I was struck by the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon that training that could deliver relatively small changes in practice can have a large impact on people's lives. That is something we look forward to.