Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the November 2019 NHS workforce statistics, what steps he is taking to reduce the deficit of (a) 400 consultant psychiatrists and (b) 8,100 mental health nurses to tackle mental health problems after the covid-19 outbreak.

The interim NHS People Plan, published in June 2019 set out actions to reduce vacancies and secure the staff we need for the future. Since then, there have been a number of initiatives put in place to increase the National Health Service mental health workforce.

The new junior doctor contract gives psychiatry trainees an additional £21,017 pay premia over the course of their training programme which is in addition to their normal pay. Health Education England has also increased the number of psychiatry placements available for junior doctors undertaking foundation training.

For mental health nurses, the ‘Golden Hello’ offer for mental health nursing incentivises nurses to train in mental health and we have seen an increase in the number of postgraduate students studying mental health nursing since September 2018. We have also launched the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign highlighting nursing opportunities in mental health to garner more interest in this profession and we are committed to delivering 50,000 more nurses for the NHS.