Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of availability of clinicians to supervise (a) medical students and (b) newly qualified healthcare staff.

As set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, we recognise that clinical academics are crucial to training future generations of healthcare professionals, by leading on research and delivering much of the teaching of students. As the number of training places increases across professions, more clinical academic posts will be needed.

Health Education England, now part of NHS England, published a new Educator Workforce Strategy in March 2023 setting out the actions that will lead to sufficient capacity and quality of educators to allow the growth in the healthcare workforce needed now and in the future. This includes planning for educator career pathways practice and across sectors and professions. Recognising educators and their value, and detailing initiatives to support them, will raise the profile of this essential workforce, and help to expand the educator pool.