Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the decision to close the NHS volunteer and care service, whether they will extend the funding of NHS Practitioner Health beyond March 2026.

The National NHS and Care Volunteer Responders programme was first established as part of the COVID-19 response and then adapted to respond to other organisational pressures. However, a model that worked well in a national crisis is no longer the most cost-effective way of facilitating the important contribution of our much-valued volunteers.

National Health Service staff are incredibly dedicated. However, if healthcare staff are to provide excellent care to patients, they need to receive excellent support themselves. Work is underway to modernise NHS working culture and to make the NHS the best place to work, and this includes a much stronger focus on staff health and wellbeing.

The Practitioner Health mental health treatment service is currently funded up until 31 March 2026. NHS England is reviewing the future provision of services to support staff health in the workplace.