Oral Answers to Questions

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Tuesday 15th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to recruit and retain additional staff in the NHS.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

17. What recent steps he has taken to tackle NHS workforce shortages.

[Jim McMahon (Oldham West and Royton) (Lab/Co-op)]

19. What recent estimate he has made of the level of staff shortages throughout the NHS.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Hammond]

Nurses are at the absolute heart of our NHS. There are 13,400 more nurses since May 2010. We have announced the biggest expansion of nurse training places, with 5,000 more available from 2018. Alongside that, we are opening up new routes. As the hon. Lady will know, the workforce is at the heart of the long-term plan and, as I have just said, a detailed workforce implementation plan will be published in the spring.

[Stella Creasy]

Last week, a 14-year-old boy lost his life in my local community, yet in September, when the Department wrote to my local community asking for ideas about mental health provision, I wrote back to Ministers asking for an urgent meeting to talk about how we could get mental health workers into our schools to work with young people who might be at risk of being involved in gang violence and youth violence. With the shortage of mental health workers at a rate of one in 10, can I finally have that meeting with Ministers so that we can talk urgently about how to support such young people and save not only money, but lives?

[Stephen Hammond]

The answer to that question is yes. The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price), will be delighted to meet the hon. Lady.