Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan and NHS Planning Guidance commitments for 2019-20, what progress his Department has made against the commitment to do more to nurture the next generation of leaders, including a systematic regional and local approach for identifying, assessing, developing, deploying and supporting talent; and if he will make a statement.

Ensuring the National Health Service has the right number of leaders with the right skills, values and experience is a key aspect of the interim NHS People Plan, which was published on 3 June. Developing and nurturing leadership talent is one of the ways the NHS will ensure it has the right culture to empower all staff to work to the best of their ability.

The action set out in the interim NHS People Plan builds on the NHS Leadership Academy’s work to establish regional talent boards and talent pools across the NHS in England. Additionally, a new NHS High Potential Scheme and an increase in the size of the annual intake of the Graduate Management Training Scheme to 500 will be delivered in 2019/20.