Two conferences with lots to say

This month I want to write about two important conferences.

In September, we ran our first Learning Disability Practice conference in Manchester, and I am pleased to say it went very well. The 100 delegates went away having made some useful contacts and with lots to think about.

I learned that the key to a successful conference is the programme: get that right and everything else falls neatly into place. If you didn’t get to this year’s LDP conference, don’t worry. We had such a great time that we are going to do it all again next year – watch this space.

The other conference is the England’s chief nursing officer (CNO) summit, which RCNi is jointly presenting with NHS England in Birmingham in early December. This one will focus on, among other things, the development of a new nursing strategy, which will supersede the Compassion in Practice 6Cs strategy.

The chief nursing officer spoke about ways that services must be modified to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities

CNO Jane Cummings spoke at our conference about how services have to be modified to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities so that they have better health, are housed appropriately, and are not prescribed antipsychotic drugs simply because services are unable to cope with their behaviour.

Another important point Ms Cummings made was that the UK needs more learning disability nurses, not fewer.

Her confirmation that numbers need to go up was important because for years, despite the great work done under the banner of the Strengthening the Commitment programme, the numbers of student nurses in training to become learning disability nurses have stagnated.

Let’s hope that the words of the CNO herald an increase in recruitment in the ranks.