Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential reasons for health professionals leaving the NHS, to the lowest available data level; and what steps his Department is taking to promote improved staff retention.

NHS England publishes quarterly data on the broad reasons for staff leaving and staff movements in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations, support organisations, and central bodies in England. This is published as part of the NHS Workforce Statistics publication, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

In addition, the latest timeseries data, which runs to September 2024, is available at the following link:

https://files.digital.nhs.uk/CC/67A0A8/NHS%20Workforce%20Statistics%2C%20September%202024%20Reasons%20for%20Leaving.xlsx

The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, to ensure the retention of our hardworking and dedicated staff. NHS England is leading the National Retention Programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts.

Retention efforts are aligned with the NHS People Promise, which was co-developed with staff to reflect what matters to them. This ensures that trusts have access to proven retention strategies and data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.