Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his department has made of the adequacy of staffing levels in the NHS.

As at December 2018, the National Health Service employed near-record levels of staff, with an increase of almost 72,800 full time equivalent staff since 2010. There are currently over 52,000 nurses in undergraduate training, over 30,000 doctors in undergraduate training, and over 50,000 doctors currently in foundation and specialty postgraduate medical training.

The Government is already increasing nurse training places by 25%, with 5,000 additional nurse training places available every year from September 2018. Additionally, in 2018, up to 5,000 nursing associates commenced training through the apprentice route and the Department has a commitment to train up to a further 7,500 in 2019. The Government also made a commitment to have 5,000 additional doctors in general practice. The Department has started to roll out an extra 1,500 medical school places for domestic students, with the first 630 places taken up in September 2018. By 2020, five new medical schools will have opened to help deliver the expansion.

Furthermore, the NHS Long Term Plan sets out a vital strategic framework to ensure that over the next 10 years the NHS will have the staff it needs, so that nurses and doctors can administer the expert compassionate care they are committed to providing. Baroness Dido Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement, working closely with Sir David Behan, Chair of Health Education England, will lead a number of programmes to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan. Baroness Harding and Sir David will present these initial recommendations to the Department this spring.