Draft Health Education England (Transfer of Functions, Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 20th March 2023 General Committees

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward, and to represent the shadow Health and Social Care team. As has already been noted, the draft statutory instrument facilitates the merger of the body responsible for the education and training of the health workforce —Health Education England—with NHS England. We agree that it is a sensible move. With a wry smile, I conclude that it is yet another of the bureaucratic reforms introduced by Lord Lansley that are now being unpicked by this Government, although it is a sensible choice.

The Government have rightly stated that the purpose of the integration is to improve long-term workforce planning and strategy for healthcare staff recruitment within the NHS. Labour is committed to long-term workforce planning for the NHS and for social care, which would necessitate independent workforce projections. The fact that the NHS has not had a workforce plan since 2003 is staggering. We want the Government to get on and deliver a plan. Our plan or their plan—a plan—would be great. For that reason, we will not oppose these measures.

I wish, however, to raise a couple of points on which I would appreciate some clarity from the Minister. When we debated the merger of NHS Digital and NHS England in January, I made the point to the Minister that we must ensure that talent and expertise are retained. I do so again today. Given that we are looking at an estimated 40% cut in workforce numbers, we need to ensure that NHS England still has the staffing resources it needs to function adequately in this sphere. Will the Minister provide an update on how that work is progressing? What assurances can he give to Members that staff are being treated fairly throughout the process? Can he also set out what specific service improvements he anticipates as a consequence of the merger, and what metrics will his Department use to judge NHS England’s performance within its new remit?

It was recently reported that a £100 million redundancy budget has been set for the mergers, alongside a £13 million contract to PA Consulting to oversee the merger. I do not quote those sums to put the Minister on the spot, but instead to reinforce that public money is being spent, so we need to ensure that we see positive results at the end of the process. That is something we want to see, which is why I ask about it in the spirit of co-operation.

Finally, given that the merger will, according to the Government, put healthcare staff recruitment and retention at the forefront of the national NHS agenda, can the Minister outline when the NHS workforce plan will be published? He gave an indication to his right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet that it would be soon. I am a little more impatient than that, given that we have not had one since 2003. Also, what will NHS England’s role be within that workforce plan when we get it?

The Opposition will not oppose these very sensible regulations.