Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 11 September 2025 to Question 74930 on Midwives: Recruitment and Training, if he can outlines measures his Department is taking to increase the number of jobs available for newly qualified midwives.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 11 August 2025, the Government announced the Graduate Guarantee for nurses and midwives. The Graduate Guarantee will ensure that there are enough positions this year for every newly qualified midwife in England. Vacant maternity support worker posts will be temporarily converted to Band 5 midwifery roles, backed by £8 million to create new opportunities specifically for newly qualified midwives and to further ease the recruitment strain.
Furthermore, the Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department has carried out an assessment of the potential merits of providing childcare support for midwives in training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Education provides the primary funding support package for English domiciled students in higher education through the student loans system. Eligible students can also apply for the Childcare Grant and Parents’ Learning Allowance.
The Department of Health and Social Care provides eligible healthcare students, including midwifery students, with supplementary, non-repayable support via the NHS Learning Support Fund. This includes a non-repayable grant of £5,000 per academic year and, for eligible students with childcare responsibilities, an additional £2,000 per academic year for parental support. These funding arrangements are reviewed ahead of the start of each academic year.
Midwifery apprentices can access childcare support schemes available to working parents, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 6874 on Brain: Diseases, when the neurology transformation programme will come into effect for patients currently receiving neurological treatment in hospitals outside of their home region.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established a Neurology Transformation Programme, a multi-year, clinically led programme, which has developed a new model of integrated care to support integrated care boards (ICBs) to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients. This programme is underway now and is due to conclude in March 2026.
The Neurology Transformation Programme focuses on providing access equitably across the country, care as close to home as possible, and early intervention to prevent illness and deterioration in patients with long-term neurological conditions. A toolkit is being developed to support ICBs to understand and implement this new model, which will include components on delivering acute neurology services, improving health equity in neurology, and improving community neurology services.
NHS England Specialised Commissioning published a revised National Neurology Service Specification in August 2025, which provides a detailed description of how patients can access specialised neurology care equitably wherever they are in England, particularly for specialised services that are not available in every part of the country.
There are currently no plans to develop a neurology-specific implementation plan to support the 10-Year Health Plan, although potential conditions and topics for the new modern service frameworks will be kept under review following the development of the first tranche of three referenced in the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to continue funding for Nursing Associate Apprenticeships.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no plans to change NHS England's existing funding arrangements for nursing associate apprenticeships.
The Apprenticeship Levy, which is managed by the Department for Work and Pensions, is also used to fund nursing associate apprenticeships in the National Health Service. Employers with an annual pay bill of over £3 million contribute 0.5% of their payroll to the Apprenticeship Levy to fund and expand apprenticeship opportunities across the country, including for nursing associates.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 6874 on Brain: Diseases, whether his Department plans to update the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on the recognition and referral of suspected neurological conditions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for making decisions on whether its published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence or emerging issues not in the scope of the original guideline.
NICE has no plans to review or update its guideline on Suspected neurological conditions: recognition and referral, code NG127, at this time.
NICE maintains surveillance of new evidence that may affect its published guidance and would consult on any proposed changes with a wide range of stakeholders if significant new evidence was to emerge.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had on the future role of Nursing Associates within the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State has not had any discussions on the future role of Nursing Associates specifically. The Government is committed to publishing a 10-Year Workforce Plan which will create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. We are working through how the Plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of staff in his Department have flexible working arrangements; and how many of those work compressed hours.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Department is committed to delivering its business effectively and sustainably, by creating workplaces that enable smart, flexible and hybrid working. Flexible working is a broad category which refers to any type of working arrangement that gives some degree of flexibility around how long, where or when an individual works.
Individuals can request informal arrangements which, if implemented, would have no impact on an employee's pay or other terms and conditions, or as a formal request. Compressed hours, for example, may be an ad hoc arrangement that doesn’t involve a contractual change to the employee's daily working hours, or a formal arrangement. Both formal and informal arrangements are agreed between the employee and line manager, and therefore there is not a central record of all the arrangements that exist. There would be disproportionate cost involved in reviewing all employee files and collating information on all informal and formal flexible working arrangements, including compressed hours.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of staff in his Department did not meet the minimum office attendance target in the latest period for which data is available; and what sanctions his Department issues to staff who do not meet this target.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 24 October 2024, the Cabinet Office announced that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Senior managers will continue to be expected to be in the office more than 60% of the time.
If people do not meet that reasonable expectation, as with any management instruction, it will be dealt with via existing performance management processes and ultimately with disciplinary action should there be sustained failure to comply.
Data on office attendance is published on the Government website and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the future role of Physician Associates and Anaesthesia Associates has been within the scope of discussions (a) he and (b) his Department have had with the British Medical Association in relation to potential strike action.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Departmental officials regularly discuss a wide range of matters with the British Medical Association (BMA) in relation to the working conditions of doctors and specifically in relation to the current dispute with the Resident Doctors Committee. The BMA has raised the issue of the differential in starting salaries between some resident doctors and physician associates and anaesthesia associates both in discussions and publicly.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of acceptation of the recommendations of the Leng review on the number of (a) Physicians Associates and (b) Anaesthesia Associates.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The principal question of the Leng Review was to assess whether the roles of physician associates and anaesthesia associates, now to be known as physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia, are safe and effective. The review’s findings were clear that, with changes in line with its recommendations, there remains a place for these roles to continue as supportive, complementary members of medical teams.
While decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers at a local level, physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia will continue to play an important role in the NHS.
Our forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will look at how to get the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care, and we will consider the findings of the Leng Review when developing the plan.