Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the decision to abolish the Nursing Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals policy unit within the Department of Health on the roles of Professional Adviser for Allied Health Professions and Professional Adviser for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Dementia Care.

The Department has not made a formal assessment of the effect of the decision to abolish the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals policy unit on the roles of Professional Adviser for Allied Health Professions and Professional Adviser for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Dementia Care.

As part of the DH 2020 plan, the Department is changing the way it works to deliver its essential work for the Government while achieving efficiency savings. The Department’s approach is to flexibly access professional advice from a wide range of sources, including arms-length bodies, regulators, stakeholders and professional bodies, rather than from a fixed standing team of internal advisers.