Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the number of psychiatry students.

On 3 October 2017, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Health Education England (HEE) invited universities to bid for 1,000 additional medical school places available from September 2019. The published criteria against which bids will be assessed include how proposals support specialities such as psychiatry. This is part of a historic expansion announced by my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health in October 2016 and includes an additional 500 places allocated for September 2018 entry.

In ‘Stepping forward to 2020/21: A mental health workforce plan for England’, HEE sets out a plan to transform the mental health workforce, including a number of key actions to increase workforce supply. Current initiatives to improve recruitment into psychiatry training posts include increasing the number of training placements in psychiatry in the Foundation Programme and supporting the Royal College of Psychiatrists on its marketing campaign ‘Choose Psychiatry’.