Oral Answers to Questions

Vicky Ford Excerpts

Tuesday 5th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately)]

As the hon. Lady will have heard me say earlier, we are grateful to international care workers who come to care for our loved ones in this country. We need to get the balance right between international recruitment and our home-grown care workforce. On the question specifically on dependants, I say to her that every care worker who comes here to do work in the UK has a choice as to whether to come here or not.

[Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)]

T8. I thank the Health and Secondary Care Minister for visiting the new medical school in Chelmsford yesterday. This is the first time that students have ever been able to train as doctors in Essex in its history, and the results are phenomenal. This is living proof of the Government’s commitment to train the NHS staff of the future. What progress is he making to increase work placements for students so that we can train even more doctors, nurses and people for important roles such as physician associates?

[The Minister for Health and Secondary Care (Andrew Stephenson)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her question and her kind invite to visit her constituency. I pay tribute to all the work she has done to secure investment in Anglia Ruskin University. She is right to highlight the importance of delivering clinical placements as part of the long-term workforce plan. I assure her that we are working closely with NHS England and partners in health and education to ensure that happens.