Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to provide additional and funded NHS staff retention schemes.

The National Health Service Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well.

In 2022/23, the programme focused on five High Impact Areas which aimed to improve support for people experiencing menopause, a focus on flexible working, the roll out of a self-assessment tool and targeted interventions around later and early careers such as the preceptorship programme and legacy mentoring. In addition, the programme offered tailored support to systems and launched a pilot programme for 23 trusts across England to implement bundles of interventions aligned to all elements of the People Promise.

In 2023/24, NHS England will continue to provide support to the five High Impact Areas, direct support to systems and continue to build evidence from the 23 exemplar sites to share best practice across the country.