Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department taking to ensure that maternity hospitals are adequately staffed to ensure high quality care for pregnant women in Devon.

The Government is committed to tackling the retention and recruitment challenges that face the National Health Service. Bringing in the staff we need will take time, but this is an absolute priority for the Government.

NHS England is leading a range of initiatives to boost retention of existing staff and ensure that the NHS remains an attractive career choice for new recruits. This includes building a compassionate and inclusive culture, supporting staff wellbeing, and promoting flexible working opportunities.

Targeted retention work for midwives is being undertaken by NHS England, led by the Chief Nursing Officer. This work contains a range of measures, including creation of a midwifery and nursing retention self-assessment tool, mentoring schemes, strengthened advice and support on pensions, and embedding flexible retirement options. NHS England has also invested in unit-based retention leads which, alongside investment in workforce capacity, has seen a reduction in vacancy, leaver, and turnover rates.

Decisions around local recruitment remain the responsibility of individual NHS trusts, who are responsible for ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.