Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase mental health clinical staff within the NHS.

The Government recognises that more staff are needed. That is why, as part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to cut waiting times and provide faster treatment. We recognise that bringing in the staff needed will take time and we are working with NHS England on options to deliver this expansion of the mental health workforce.

More broadly, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. This plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. A central part of this will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.

In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.