Alex McClimens and Sarah Burns consider the future for this area of care and how learning disabilities nurses will be affected by debates on policy

In our previous articles we outlined the various challenges to learning disability nursing as a separate professional registration and considered the experiences of some recent graduates who have a dual learning disability nursing and social work qualification. It seems that as the concept of learning disability as a medico-legal category has undergone revisions, so too has the role, scope and function of those professionals who provide care for this group of people. Where there were once ‘imbeciles and idiots’ warehoused in asylums in the nineteenth century, the more contemporary notion of community care and individualised planning has ushered in new practices and the profession has adapted to meet contemporary challenges. People with learning disabilities as service users and their professional carers continue to demonstrate resilience in the face of sometimes provocative and unhelpful social and economic circumstances. But what happens next?