Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of levels of availability of entry-level physiotherapy roles on musculoskeletal waiting lists.

Decisions on the recruitment of physiotherapists are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

To tackle waiting times, we are working to deliver the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal Community Delivery Programme. GIRFT teams are working with health system leaders to further reduce musculoskeletal community waiting times, which are the largest volume of all community waits, and improve data, metrics, and referral pathways to wider support services. This includes mapping and analysing the provision and role of physiotherapists as First Contact Practitioners in primary care.