Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department made an impact assessment of ending new registrations by secondary care staff to the NHS Practitioner Health Programme before taking that decision; and whether she plans to reinstate this support.

The mental health and wellbeing of the National Health Service workforce is of paramount importance. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of the NHS understand and sympathise with the concerns raised last month, in relation to the future of the NHS Practitioner Health service. They took swift action to ensure that it will continue to provide a full service to doctors and senior managers during 2023/24, whilst a review is carried out. This was confirmed by NHS England on 15 April 2024.

NHS England is reviewing the service as part of a wider review of its mental health and wellbeing offer to staff. They are working collaboratively with regions and integrated care systems to agree the best approach to providing mental health support for staff, including outreach for the workforce. They will confirm future arrangements once this review has been completed.