Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to support hospices to (a) recruit and (b) retain skilled staff in West Dorset constituency.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services.  As independent organisations, charitable hospices are responsible for their own recruitment and employment terms. They are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment, including the pay scales. It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate.

A central part of our forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and those who support our workforce, including how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients, including those with palliative care and end of life care needs, across our communities.

This summer, we will also publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it, including for those with palliative care and end of life care needs.