Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of midwifery recruitment freezes on maternal health outcomes in England; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce staffing shortages in maternity services in areas where (a) hospital access times are longer and (b) home birth provision has declined.

The Government is committed to tackling the retention and recruitment challenges that face the National Health Service.

NHS England is leading a range of initiatives to boost the retention of existing staff. This includes building a compassionate and inclusive culture, supporting staff wellbeing, and promoting flexible working opportunities.

On 11 August, we announced the Graduate Guarantee for nurses and midwives. The Graduate Guarantee will ensure that there are enough positions for every newly qualified midwife in England. The package of measures will unlock thousands of jobs and will ensure thousands of new posts are easier to access by removing barriers for NHS trusts, creating opportunities for graduates and ensuring a seamless transition from training to employment.

Vacant maternity support worker posts will be temporarily converted to band 5 midwifery roles, backed by £8 million to create new opportunities specifically for newly qualified midwives and to further ease the recruitment strain.

These new measures aim to tackle graduates’ concerns about job availability and ensure the NHS has the right staff to provide the best possible care to patients everywhere.

Targeted retention work for midwives is being undertaken by NHS England, led by the Chief Nursing Officer for England. 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.

There are four nationally run programmes to develop midwifery staff, at bands 6 and above, from ethnic minority groups to better support patients, in addition to local initiatives to better reflect the community of the women and babies they support.

Responsibility for the delivery, implementation and funding decisions for services ultimately rests with the appropriate NHS commissioner. This includes waiting times and homebirth provisions.

NHS commissioners are expected to develop clear plans for reverting temporary service changes or developing plans for the permanent reconfiguration of the service. All service changes should be based on clear evidence that they will deliver better outcomes for patients.