Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to recruit additional midwives in England.

Health Education England (HEE) has been working with stakeholders towards an increase of 3,650 midwifery student training places by the end of 2022/23, with training leading to professional registration. This includes 650 additional training places in 2019/20 and up to 1,000 additional training places per year in the following three years. Against 2018/19 as the baseline for comparison, there was an increase of 626 places in 2019/20 and 1,140 in 2020/21.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have invested an additional £95 million to support the recruitment of a further 1,200 midwives and 100 obstetricians and multi-disciplinary team training. This will allow providers to achieve their recruitment and retention ambitions through a range of initiatives, such as supporting newly qualified midwives, additional pastoral care to aid retention and the recruitment of midwives from overseas.