Mr David Harling

Mr Harling qualified in 1993 as a Registered Learning Disability Nurse and in 1998 as a Registered Mental Health Nurse. In 1996 he won the RCN national learning disability nurse of the year for work related to grief and loss and in 1997 he won the Nursing Times highly acclaimed award for the same work. He has worked in both inpatient and community services having served a staff nurse, charge nurse, clinical nurse specialist and service manager. In 2002 he was one of the firstly appointed Consultant Nurses and went on to serve as the SHA regional pathway lead for the Darzi Health ambitions national programme. Prior to taking up a national role he served as clinical director for community, inpatient and forensic mental health services. In 2013 he was commissioned by the Chief Nursing Officer for England to lead a high-profile review of an individual subject to nine years in long term segregation. Thereafter he was commissioned by the joint ministerial programme board to lead reviews of all the ex-residents of Winterbourne View. He subsequently served as expert advisor to the post incident response board following the scandal at Whorlton Hall. As a result of leading these programmes he designed the original format for the national Care and Treatment Reviews and led on the development of a national patient safety tool in mental health. In 2015 he was appointed to a new national regulatory role for learning disability and mental health in the newly formed NHS Improvement and he led the design, delivery and oversight of the national Learning Disability Improvement Standards for the NHS. During the same period, he served as the subject matter expert in a number of high-profile deaths. He also served as the expert clinician on the independent review into the death of Oliver McGowan and was subsequently commissioned to lead a secondary assurance review in relation to implementation of recommendations arising from the independent review. As part of his role as national patient safety lead for learning disability and autism, he led on the original commission for the LeDeR programme, serving as national advisory board member for the premature deaths of people with a learning disability. He has additional experience as a board member on a number of national boards, including the national Transforming Care delivery board, the National Autism board, the Inpatient Transformation Programme board, the Review of the Mental Capacity Act and the National Health and Care Partners delivery board.

Mr Harling has served in as expert advisor to a range of national policy and strategy developments including work with Department of Health, the Kings Fund, National Offender Management Service, Valuing People Support Team, Royal Colleges of Nursing and Psychiatry, Challenging Behaviour Foundation. Mr Harling is a staunch advocate for the delivery of rights-based care/services, coproduction and codesign, and has clinical expertise in learning disability, mental health, challenging behaviour, autism, health inequalities and forensic mental health. His career long experience has seen him develop expertise in clinical risk management, periodic service review methodology, strategic planning, quality assurance & compliance, investigative reviews, clinical effectiveness, policy development, training & innovation, research & evaluation.

Mr Harling has served in the capacity of honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Hull for 10 years as part of the Consultant Nurse position alongside teaching on both pre and post registration nursing university programmes. In 2009 he was commissioned by the nursing council for Northern Ireland to deliver a series of master classes in managing behavioural distress, service redesign and defining best practice standards. He has presented at multiple conferences and events both nationally and internationally, including the house of commons, the NHS Expo, The RCNi national conferences and the directors of nursing in mental health and learning disability annual events.

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Mr Harling has led a variety of clinical teams and services, including specialist community, inpatient and forensic services. He has served in management positions at a local trust level, a regional strategic health authority level and currently in national capacity having overseen management responsibility for a variety of teams/services over the past twenty years. He has held management responsibility for the development and operational implementation of Learning Disability policy and practice at a national level and held professional responsibility for strategic clinical leadership for Learning Disability within the Nursing Directorate on behalf of the former NHS Improvement and latterly NHS England. Mr Harling has served as the lead for the clinical governance, strategic planning, and non-medical prescribing. He headed clinical management for the Humberside MAPPA board. Throughout his career he held clinical caseload for individuals with complex, high risk and enduring needs and has led as programme facilitator for forensic adapted sex offender treatment programmes.

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