Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (i) what estimate her Department has made of the number of newly qualified paramedics who have been unable to secure employment with NHS ambulance trusts in England in each of the last three years; (ii) what plans her Department has to extend the Graduate Guarantee scheme, currently available to newly qualified nurses and midwives, to newly qualified paramedics; and (iii) what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan accounts for the relationship between paramedic science training places and the number of substantive posts NHS ambulance trusts are funded to offer at the point of qualification.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Decisions on local recruitment and employment are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts, to ensure they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care, and the specific information requested by the Hon Member is not centrally collated by the Department.

However, on the broader point he raises, we know that student paramedics work incredibly hard to gain the skills needed to save lives and we want those who qualify to be able to care for patients as soon as possible.

This year has seen record numbers of ambulance staff in the NHS, including paramedics, and our upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will help ensure the NHS has the right staff, in the right places, to deliver the care that patients need.