Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the total funds allocated for continuing professional development in each of the years 2013–14 to 2016–17 for (1) medical doctors and consultants, (2) registered nurses, (3) registered midwives, and (d) all other regulated health professionals.

Different organisations have a range of responsibilities for training and development. Individual National Health Service employers have responsibility for supporting staff with courses which are required to fulfil duties to work in their organisation and core employment requirements. The Department does not collect this data.

National funding through Health Education England (HEE) has historically been used to support development of the NHS workforce which includes development of careers. HEE invests up to £300 million per year on supporting individuals in NHS employment to achieve registered qualifications and a further £80 million on workforce transformation projects agreed locally, some of which has prioritised training courses for ongoing development.

Going forward, HEE is considering alternative models for traditional Continuing Professional Development funding; for example exploring routes for apprenticeships for post-graduate qualifications that may have been funded directly at a national level previously.