Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with Health Education England on safe staffing levels.

The Department has not held formal discussions with Health Education England (HEE) specifically regarding safe staffing. HEE annually produces a national workforce plan for England setting out the investment it will make in undergraduate and postgraduate (including medical specialty) training in the next financial year.

As part of the 2015/16 workforce plan, HEE will continue the growth in nursing numbers to meet safe staffing levels by commissioning 555 additional training posts, an increase of 4.2%. This means in the last two years adult nursing training places will have grown by 13.6%.

In developing the next workforce plan for 2016/17, HEE will listen to evidence from stakeholders across the National Health Service. It is through these national and local arrangements that we will ensure that the workforce meets the needs of today’s patients whilst delivering the future workforce in a way that not only maintains safe staffing levels, but supports the service transformation necessary to improve quality of care.