Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to incentivise the recruitment and retention of clinical academics.

We recognise that clinical academics are crucial to delivering world leading research across the health and care system, and for training future generations of healthcare professionals.

NHS England published an Educator Workforce Strategy in 2023 setting out the key priority actions that will lead to the sufficient capacity and quality of diverse educators to allow for the growth in the healthcare workforce needed now and in the future.

The National Clinical Impact Awards Scheme serves as a recognition and retention tool for the consultant doctors and dentists, clinical academics, and academic general practitioners who have the highest impact on the wider National Health Service and public health.

Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Department has invested substantially in training since 2006, with the Department being the largest funder of research training for clinical academics in the United Kingdom.

We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again.