Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase the representation of (a) ethnic minority and (b) internationally educated nurses in governance structures of the (i) nursing and (ii) midwifery professions.

The National Health Service workforce is more diverse today than at any point in its 75-year history.

The NHS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion improvement plan, which was published on 8 June 2023, requires NHS organisations and integrated care boards to create talent management plans to improve diversity of boards and senior roles and to implement plans to widen recruitment opportunities within local communities. This should include a focus on career pathways into the NHS such as apprenticeship programmes and graduate management training schemes.

To increase the number of internationally educated nurses at higher grades, NHS England has funded 22 pilot projects as part of an Accelerated Development Programme. NHS England has also been proactive in encouraging ethnic minority nurses and midwives to apply for places on leadership development programmes.