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 improve (a) recruitment and (b) retainment of (i) nurses, (ii) doctors, (iii) dentists and (iv) medical technicians.

We are on schedule to deliver an additional 50,000 nurses by the end of March 2024, with a further 32,000 nurses currently working in the National Health Service, compared with September 2019. The Government has funded an additional 1,500 medical school places each year for domestic students in England, which was completed in September 2020 and delivered five new medical schools. The first graduates from this expansion entered foundation training in August 2022.

Health Education England has undertaken a three-year review of education and training, which is being implemented through the Dental Education Reform Programme. In July 2022, we announced measures to reform NHS dental services to increase access for patients and remunerate dentists fairly for caring for patients with complex needs. We are also working with NHS England and the sector on longer-term improvements to make NHS dentistry a more appealing place to work.

Emergency medical technician training is undertaken through an apprenticeship qualification whilst employed in an ambulance service trust. Some EMTs can progress to a registered paramedic through additional education programmes.

NHS England’s retention programme seeks to understand why staff leave and provide targeted interventions to support staff to stay, with each trust required to have in place retention action plans that will target support where needed locally. The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention.