Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to set minimum nurse staffing levels on wards in English hospitals.

It is not for the Government but for local hospitals to decide how many staff they employ and they are best placed to do this based on the needs of their patients.

In November 2013 the National Quality Board supported by Jane Cummings, the Chief Nursing Officer in England, published guidance on ‘How to ensure the right people, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time’.

In addition to this and to support trusts further, the Department commissioned the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to produce independent and authoritative evidence based guidance on safe staffing.

NICE published guidance on ‘Safe Staffing for Nursing in Adult In-Patient Wards in Acute Hospitals’ on 15 July 2014. The guidance does not endorse a staffing ratio. It says that no single ratio can be applied across all wards and patient populations, but makes recommendations on safe nursing and identifies indicators that should be used by trusts to demonstrate safe and effective nursing care is being provided.

The NICE guidelines will ensure that National Health Service trusts have the tools they need to make decisions to secure safe staffing. These staffing decisions will then be subject to external scrutiny and challenge by commissioners, regulators and the public, and inspection by the Chief Inspector of Hospitals.