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Vital Signs: Learning disability & autism

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Who is shaping the debate on learning disability & autism: in Parliament, in the press, and among the experts the press turns to.

See the 11 search terms behind this page ↓

02  Who is talking  ·  pick a lens

03  The signal  ·  Where it is spoken from

874

of 1,439 MPs & peers have spoken on learning disability & autism since 9 July 2024 · 4,043 Commons contributions from 538 constituencies · latest sitting indexed 28 October 2026

0Hansard contributions per seat134

Seats shaded by Hansard contributions on this topic. Lines join the 9 MPs in this list to their constituencies; peers have no seat and no line.

#Most activeSignalScore
  1. 01—Bridget PhillipsonMinisterLabour · Houghton and Sunderland South · Commons · Minister for Women and Equalities402
  2. 02—Catherine McKinnellMinisterLabour · Newcastle upon Tyne North · Commons · Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)378
  3. 03—Georgia GouldMinisterLabour · Queen's Park and Maida Vale · Commons · Minister of State (Education)291
  4. 04—Baroness Smith of MalvernMinisterLabour · House of Lords · Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)224.5
  5. 05—Munira WilsonSpokespersonLiberal Democrat · Twickenham · Commons · Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Education, Children and Families)204
  6. 06—Jen CraftLabour · Thurrock · Commons204
  7. 07—Helen HayesLabour · Dulwich and West Norwood · Commons168.5
  8. 08—Jim ShannonDemocratic Unionist Party · Strangford · Commons165
  9. 09—Lucy PowellCabinetLabour (Co-op) · Manchester Central · Commons · Secretary of State for Education141
  10. 10—Stephen KinnockCabinetLabour · Aberafan Maesteg · Commons · Secretary of State for Wales141

Score is a weighted Hansard contribution score for this topic since 9 July 2024. Portraits: UK Parliament Members API. Rank change (▲/▼) is vs. 7 days ago.

Hansard · weekly mentions

295 mentions in the last 8 sitting weeks, 420 in the 8 before

RecessJul 24Jan 25Jul 25Jan 26Jul 26178 · w/c 9 Jun11 · w/c 19 Oct

Recess weeks are not counted: sitting weeks are compared with sitting weeks, and the current week is left off until it is complete. Parliament was in recess 21 Sept to 11 Oct 2026. 5,765 mentions since 9 July 2024.

Press · articles per week

1,052 articles in 60 weeks, 274 of them in the last five

Jan 2026Jul113 · w/c 17 Aug

Source: Guardian archive, trade press and news search: a sample of coverage, not an exhaustive count. Weekly article counts to w/c 19 Oct; weeks not yet ingested are dropped rather than shown as zero.

Parliament · party split

Share of scored contributions

  • Labour417 members53%
  • Conservative215 members21%
  • Liberal Democrat112 members18%
  • Crossbench55 members2%
  • Others (15 groups)75 members5%

Labour members account for 53% of the scored contributions on this topic, across 19 party groups in both Houses.

Parliament · reach

Members who have spoken

874of 1,439 MPs & peers

61% of the roster has spoken on this topic since 9 July 2024: one square per member, 538 MPs (navy) and 336 peers (cobalt).

Briefing · Parliament

MPs and peers argue over who is accountable for SEND support, autism services and learning disability care

  1. In the Commons Health Bill debate on 7 September, Jen Craft (Labour, Thurrock) argued for new clause 85, which would put a statutory duty on integrated care boards to deliver the health part of education, health and care plans. Daniel Francis (Labour), Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat) and Danny Beales (Labour) backed the aim. The government reply, which is recorded without a named speaker, said the amendment would not be workable for the NHS but promised stronger SEND expectations on the boards.
  2. In Commons education questions on 14 September, Georgia Gould (Labour) pointed to £4 billion for early intervention and £200 million for teacher training on SEND. Saqib Bhatti (Conservative) asked when legislation will come and where the money will come from, and Aphra Brandreth (Conservative) said the new inclusion fund does not offset changes to school block funding in small rural schools. Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat) raised the cost of the reforms in two further debates.
  3. Council SEND finances recur across debates. In the Stockport schools debate on 14 October, Gould said 90% of council deficits will be relieved, contingent on delivery of SEND reform plans. In the rural upper-tier authorities debate on 2 September, Lewis Cocking (Conservative) and John Milne (Liberal Democrat) said funding formulas and remaining debt leave councils short.
  4. In the Lords Health Bill second reading on 13 October, Baroness Leaman (Liberal Democrat) and Baroness Hollins (Crossbench) focused on autism, ADHD and learning disabilities. Baroness Browning (Conservative) asked for more information to be recorded in the single patient record, and Baroness Merron (Labour) said she could not answer every point and would work with peers as the Bill progresses.
  5. Members also split on autism diagnoses and benefits. In the Lords on 15 October, Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative) criticised benefit claims by teenagers with autism, ADHD and depression. An unattributed speaker in the Immigration and Asylum Bill committee said Professor Fonagy's review found autism diagnosed at nearly four times its prevalence. On learning disability, Jen Craft raised more than 3,000 people in secure mental health units, and Baroness Bull (Crossbench) raised low employment rates, in the Lords debate on 1 September.

Verbatim

  • New clause 85 is intended to fix the inequality. It would place a statutory duty on ICBs to deliver the health part of EHCPs, matching the existing duty on local authorities.

    Jen Craft · Labour, Thurrock · Health Bill · 7 Sept 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • The framework of requirements on the NHS to provide care across local populations works very differently from the duties on local authorities to support individuals, so this kind of amendment would not be workable for the NHS. However, we share its sentiment, and we want to work with my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock to ensure ICBs are accountable for their SEND responsibilities.

    Unattributed · Health Bill · 7 Sept 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • This Bill does not mention autism or ADHD, but it changes who runs three things those patients rely on: the national programmes, the data and the patient voice.

    Baroness Leaman · Liberal Democrat, House of Lords · Health Bill · 13 Oct 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • The welfare system is haemorrhaging money to people who do not want it, who do not need it, and who should be in work but are not.

    Baroness Stedman-Scott · Conservative, House of Lords · Pensions Triple Lock · 15 Oct 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • I welcome the statement, and I hope that the national care service affords an opportunity to develop a sufficient road map to community support for the more than 3,000 people with a learning disability and autism who are currently locked away in secure mental health units that are inappropriate and, in some cases, actively harmful.

    Jen Craft · Labour, Thurrock · National Care Service · 15 Oct 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

AI-drafted from 183 Hansard contributions over 22 sitting days · 1 September 2026 to 22 October 2026 · No sittings were recorded between 18 September 2026 and 11 October 2026. · quotes are exact copies of the Hansard record, speakers taken from the record · generated 26 Oct 2026 · how briefings are made

Expert voices · press citations

The most quoted voices on this topic

40 of 386 expert voices, 126 citations across 5 groups. Click a group to open it as a lens on the map.

Clinicians

8 · 20 citationsOpen lens ↑

Academics

14 · 41 citationsOpen lens ↑

Sector leaders

16 · 60 citationsOpen lens ↑
  • Jon SparkesRoyal Mencap Society17
  • Mel MerrittNational Autistic Society5
  • Jonathan BeebeeChief Executive of PBS4 and professional lead in learning disabilities at the Royal College of Nursing5
  • Ann GrahamDirector of Children's Services at the London Borough of Haringey and President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS)4
  • Bill RevansCounty Councils Network spokesperson on special educational needs and disabilities (Send), and Liberal Democrat leader of Somerset council4
  • Zoe GrossAutistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)4
  • Sally GainsburySenior Policy Analyst at the Nuffield Trust3
  • Steph LawrenceChief executive of the Queens Institute of Community Nursing2
  • Dr Sarah HughesMind (The National Association for Mental Health)2
  • Sir Martyn OliverChief Inspector at Ofsted2
  • Dr James TaylorExecutive Director Strategy Impact & Social Change with Scope2
  • Rachael WardellPresident of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS)2
  • Alison Singerpresident of the Autism Science Foundation and former IACC member2
  • Christine Flintoft-SmithHead of Autism Accreditation and Projects at the National Autistic Society2
  • Dan Scorerhead of policy at learning disability charity Mencap2
  • Harriet EdwardsDirector of Influencing at the national disability charity Sense2

Regulators & officials

1 · 2 citationsOpen lens ↑
  • Dr Alison CaveMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)2

Unions

1 · 3 citationsOpen lens ↑

Methodology

How Vital Signs ranks

Parliament. Every Hansard contribution on a topic since 9 July 2024 is scored by type and summed per member; the map colours each constituency by how often its MP has raised the topic. Peers sit in no constituency and are ranked but not mapped.

Press. Bylines rank journalists and quotations rank expert voices, across the Guardian archive and trade press Vital Signs has read. A voice’s pin marks its organisation’s base, never the person’s home.

Briefings. Drafted by an AI model from the underlying Hansard text or articles. Every quotation in a Parliament briefing is an exact copy of the Hansard record and linked to it; press quotations are as the linked articles reported them. The speaker is always taken from the record, not the model.

Search terms for Learning disability & autism. These are the exact terms used to find what appears on this page.

Parliament: 11 terms

A Hansard contribution counts toward this topic when it contains any of these, matched as whole words.

  • learning disability
  • autism
  • autistic
  • SEND
  • EHCP
  • special educational needs
  • ADHD
  • Down's syndrome
  • supported living
  • assessment and treatment unit
  • long-stay hospital

News search: 8 terms, run each week

Each term is searched separately on Google News. Where a term only extends an earlier one (“cancer treatment” after “cancer”), it is skipped.

  • learning disability
  • autism
  • autistic
  • SEND
  • EHCP
  • special educational needs
  • ADHD
  • Down's syndrome

Guardian: 1 editor tag

The Guardian archive is read by its editors’ tags, not by keyword, so an article only counts if a Guardian editor filed it under one of these.

  • society/autism

Trade press: 1 outlet

Read by each outlet’s own category for this topic, not by keyword.

  • Local Government Chronicle
Read the full methodology →Check your MP’s record →

Profiles

More on learning disability & autism

Voices in the press

Journalists