Chronic shortage of qualified staff

The health and social care sector is struggling to recruit trained
staff in the learning difficulties field, a conference heard this
week.

Speaking at a conference last week, London South Bank university
dean of health and social care faculty David Sines told delegates
that “little attention is given to systematic workforce
planning”.

Sines estimated that up to 85 per cent of those working with people
with learning difficulties did not have any professional
qualifications.

He was also very critical about the “tokenistic” involvement of
seriously ill people with learning difficulties in chronic disease
management.