Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, hat progress has been made on the NHS Nurse recruitment drive; what assessment he has made of the implications of (a) the UK leaving the EU and (b) immigration policy on that recruitment drive; and if he will make a statement.

The National Health Service has introduced a range of measures to support increased recruitment and retention across the health and care system, including a 25% increase in training places for nurses.

NHS England, with the support of Department and Health Education England, has recently launched a major advertising campaign, aimed at encouraging recruitment to the NHS, retaining the existing workforce, and promoting the possibility of a return to the workforce for those who have previously worked in the NHS. The campaign has a strong focus on nursing, and builds upon Health Education England’s #KnowAboutNursing campaign, which has been running since May of this year.

The Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across the NHS and adult social care, and is working across Government to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which patients rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

The latest nationality statistics show at March 2018 4,558 more EU nationals excluding the UK (EU27) employed in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups than in June 2016.

The agreement between the UK and EU Commission on 8 December will guarantee the rights of the 158,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. It means that EU citizens living lawfully in the UK and UK nationals living lawfully in the EU by 29 March 2019 will be able to stay and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now.

On the impact of immigration policy on nurse recruitment, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sajid Javid) recently removed both doctors and nurses from the ambit of the Tier 2 visa cap. This means the NHS and others are able to recruit as many overseas nurses as they need.