Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their emergency care plan announced on 30 January, how many extra staff will be required by (1) the NHS, and (2) social care, to staff the new tailored support at home services and keep people out of hospital.

NHS England has asked systems as part of the 2023/24 planning round to develop and implement integrated urgent & emergency care workforce plans based on capacity and demand assessments in line with local population need. These plans will consider wider out-of-hospital services, including community services such as rehabilitation, therapy and reablement, and community nursing. As such, specific figures are still under consideration.

To scale virtual wards, NHS England will develop a national workforce recruitment capacity and capability plan, which will include multi-disciplinary teams, including staff with training in frailty, access to specialist and consultant oversight required to deliver hospital level care at home, and the therapy workforce. The Government has also made available up to £2.8 billion in 2023/24 and £4.7 billion in 2024/25 to support adult social care and discharge.

This funding will help local authorities address waiting lists, low fee rates, and workforce pressures in the social care sector.