Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 3 July 2023, what steps he is taking to help improve staff retention within the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, is a plan to retain more staff as well as to train more staff and reform the way they work. This includes pension changes, enabling newly retired doctors to rejoin the National Health Service. The plan builds on the NHS People Plan and People Promise, which set out a comprehensive range of actions to improve staff retention. They provide a strong focus on creating a more modern, compassionate and inclusive NHS culture by strengthening health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and flexible working.
NHS providers have been asked to improve staff retention measures in their workforce plans, by focussing on elements of the NHS People Promise. Staff wellbeing should be strategically aligned with elective recovery plans, including workforce demand and capacity planning.
In addition, the NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well. A staff retention guide has been updated and includes information on supporting staff in their late and early career with specific focus on induction, reward and recognition and menopause support.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional mental health nurses the NHS plans to recruit in each of the next five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The published NHS Long Term Workforce Plan models the expected number of staff in different professions over the next 15 years. This includes mental health and learning disability nurses which is shown in Table 1. The wider mental health workforce is not separated out in the plan.
The following table shows the projected supply of mental health and learning disability nurses by 2036/37.
Profession | Starting Position | Projected Supply | ||
2021/22 | 2026/27 | 2031/32 | 2036/37 | |
Mental health and learning disability nurses | 21,000 | 28,000 – 29,000 | 34,000 – 37,000 | 46,000 – 48,000 |
Source: Long Term Workforce Plan
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan also highlights the increase in domestic education and training needed to meet demand in the future. For mental health, modelled demand is based on the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan and Mental Health Investment Standard. The Mental Health Plan Long term plan also sets out an ambition for 27,000 additional mental health staff by 2023/24 compared to 2018/19.
The following table shows the increase required in education and training by profession
| Training Intake | ||||
Profession | Baseline (2022) | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
Nursing – Mental health branch | 5,714 | 6,452 | 6,825 | 7,333 | 7,902 |
Note:
Current intake is based on the Student Data Collection which includes undergraduate, postgraduate and apprentices.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional mental health staff the NHS plans to recruit in each of the next five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The published NHS Long Term Workforce Plan models the expected number of staff in different professions over the next 15 years. This includes mental health and learning disability nurses which is shown in Table 1. The wider mental health workforce is not separated out in the plan.
The following table shows the projected supply of mental health and learning disability nurses by 2036/37.
Profession | Starting Position | Projected Supply | ||
2021/22 | 2026/27 | 2031/32 | 2036/37 | |
Mental health and learning disability nurses | 21,000 | 28,000 – 29,000 | 34,000 – 37,000 | 46,000 – 48,000 |
Source: Long Term Workforce Plan
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan also highlights the increase in domestic education and training needed to meet demand in the future. For mental health, modelled demand is based on the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan and Mental Health Investment Standard. The Mental Health Plan Long term plan also sets out an ambition for 27,000 additional mental health staff by 2023/24 compared to 2018/19.
The following table shows the increase required in education and training by profession
| Training Intake | ||||
Profession | Baseline (2022) | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
Nursing – Mental health branch | 5,714 | 6,452 | 6,825 | 7,333 | 7,902 |
Note:
Current intake is based on the Student Data Collection which includes undergraduate, postgraduate and apprentices.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 3 July 2023, what funding his Department has allocated to increase training positions for mental health nurses.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term.
The Government is backing the Plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places over five years. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years.
The Plan sets out an ambition to increase training places for mental health nursing by 93%, to more than 11,000 places by 2031/32. To support this ambition, by 2028/29 we will increase training places by 38%, with increases of 13% seen by 2025/26.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of mental health nurses in inpatient mental health hospitals in the context of patient safety.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Nursing staff are particularly important for the safety of inpatient settings. The investigation by Health Services Safety Investigations Body, announced on 28 June, will include looking at how to develop a safe, therapeutic staffing model for all mental health inpatient services.
The Long-Term Workforce Plan estimates a need to increase training places for mental health nurses by between 74% and 93% by 2030/31. The Plan sets out an ambition to increase mental health nursing places by 93% to more than 11,000 places by 2031/32. To support this ambition, training places will increase by 13% by 2025/26 and 38% by 2028/29.
As of April 2023, there were 39,929 full-time equivalent (FTE) mental health nurses working in National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England. Compared to April 2022, that is an increase of 1,442 (3.7%) FTE mental health nurses.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children of alcohol dependent parents his Department has identified at risk in each local authority in the last 12 months.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The information requested is not held centrally. It is for each individual local authority to identify local risk and service need.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the Drug Strategy Fund he plans to dedicate to the Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Programme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department is not mandating how local authorities (LAs) spend their allocation of the drug strategy funding. It is for LAs to determine what interventions best augment their current treatment system and local need, based on a menu of interventions. The menu of interventions includes several interventions relating to children and families.
The Department has and will continue to encourage LAs to invest in interventions that will benefit, children and families. We provide oversight of local delivery at a national level and continue to monitor implementation against the aims of the drug strategy. We estimate between £2.4 million and £5.6 million of drug strategy funding was spent on family interventions and parental substance misuse in 2022/23.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 25 May 2023 from the hon. Member for Tooting on the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I replied to the Honourable Member on 20 June 2023.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) he and (b) his Department has held recent meetings with the families of former patients at Taplow Manor Hospital.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England and the local provider collaboratives are working intensively with Active Care Group to improve the quality of care at the group’s hospitals, including Taplow Manor Hospital. This includes increased scrutiny, surveillance and oversight, such as reviews of incident reports, safety reviews and case manager visits.
Taplow Manor Hospital is currently in special measures and will be kept under close review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and re-inspected to check sufficient improvements have been made. If on re-inspection, the CQC is still not satisfied with the progress made, it will take further action if necessary to protect the people using this service, including potentially removing the registration of the service.
We will continue to work with the CQC and the National Health Service to ensure all mental health settings are providing the standard of care expected. Neither Ministers nor officials in the Department have met with family members of former patients at the hospital.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that patients at Taplow Manor Hospital receive adequate care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England and the local provider collaboratives are working intensively with Active Care Group to improve the quality of care at the group’s hospitals, including Taplow Manor Hospital. This includes increased scrutiny, surveillance and oversight, such as reviews of incident reports, safety reviews and case manager visits.
Taplow Manor Hospital is currently in special measures and will be kept under close review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and re-inspected to check sufficient improvements have been made. If on re-inspection, the CQC is still not satisfied with the progress made, it will take further action if necessary to protect the people using this service, including potentially removing the registration of the service.
We will continue to work with the CQC and the National Health Service to ensure all mental health settings are providing the standard of care expected. Neither Ministers nor officials in the Department have met with family members of former patients at the hospital.