Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to improve the morale of junior doctors in the last 12 months.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Chair of the Junior Doctor’s Committee Dr Johann Malawana on 8 October providingfour cast iron guarantees on contract reform. He said that he was not seeking to make savings from the pay bill, he wished to have a contract that improves patient safety, that reduces not increases the number of hours junior doctors work each week and which ensures that in future the great majority of doctors will be at least as well paid as now. In particular, he referenced negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) consultants committee to make sure there is proper consultant cover at weekends so junior doctors are better supported. He also wanted Health Education England (HEE) and the Royal Colleges to continue working with the BMA and NHS Employers to look at how the training experience can be improved more generally for juniors to better support work life balance including leave arrangements and recognising that juniors often have family responsibilities and choose to work part time. He asked the Junior Doctor’s Committee to re-enter negotiations and to work with others on the wider work on improving the training experience.

Employers across the National Health Service are responsible for the morale of all their staff including junior doctors.

The Department commissions NHS Employers to help trusts improve staff morale through advice, guidance and good practice on staff experience (which includes staff engagement¹ and staff physical and mental health and wellbeing) which should lead to a happier workforce. The guidance they are promoting includes resources on medical staff engagement.

The work the Department commissions from NHS Employers is aimed at helping embed the rights and pledges staff should expect from their employers as set out in the NHS Constitution².

The Chief Executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens announced on 2 September a major drive to improve health in the NHS workplace.This includes creating a positive working environment that listens to frontline staff, tackles bullying and discrimination, reduces stress and promotes health and positive mental wellbeing.

[1] http://www.nhsemployers.org/

2 http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/NHSConstitution/Documents/2013/the-nhs-constitution-for-england-2013.pdf