Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he has considered the potential merits of provision for cure to prevention workstreams and the role of social prescribing in formulating the 10 Year Workforce Plan.

The Government is committed to taking a preventive approach to improve health and address health inequalities. We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health to support them to live longer and healthier lives, and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.

The 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, including the shift to prevention which is central to our vision for neighbourhood health.

The plan will set out a sustainable approach to workforce planning, one which is responsive and agile to changes in how we deliver care and prevent ill-health, supporting the workforce and growing it where needed to deliver better prevention, better care, and better outcomes.