Community Nurses

(asked on 15th May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report published by the King’s Fund report on 14 March 2017, Understanding NHS financial pressures: how are they affecting patient care?, which found that district nursing services were under pressure due to the effects of increased demand at a time when NHS budgets are static or falling.


Answered by
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait
Lord O'Shaughnessy
This question was answered on 30th May 2018

Community health services plays a crucial role in keeping people living healthier for longer through proactively managing health in a setting where patients feel most comfortable. Having the right workforce is fundamental to ensure this can happen and the Government acknowledges the challenge of meeting increased demand for care from community nurses

Work by the NHS Benchmarking Network found that 39% of district nursing clinical time is spent on wound care and so wound care is a key service within the remit of community health services. There are a number of activities currently taking place to address the issues around wound care including the National ‘Stop the Pressure’ programme by NHS Improvement and the Leading Change, Adding Value: Improving Wound Care Project by NHS England.

District nurses will have completed a Specialist Practitioner Programme, approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, to practice. NHS Digital’s data shows a drop in the number of full-time equivalent practicing district nurses. This has been reported by various interested parties, including the King’s Fund and the Queen’s Nursing Institute. As a result of changes, made in 2009, to the way that community health services are commissioned – i.e. to a range of different types of provider – there will be a number of district nurses providing National Health Service funded services in organisations that do not provide a return to the Electronic Staff Record and therefore this data does not represent the full picture.

However we are not complacent, which is why Health Education England is exploring the capacity and capability requirement of our community workforce to best meet the future needs of the population. This will be set out in their workforce strategy later this year. In order to meet the growing need to increase the future supply of registered nurses including mental health, additional clinical placement funding was announced by the Department in August and October 2017. This will enable around 5,000 more nursing students to enter training each year from September 2018; a historic increase.

On 9 May, the Minister of State for Health (Stephen Barclay), also announced that postgraduate students who go on to work in mental health and learning disability fields, as well as those postgraduates who go on to work in community nursing roles, will receive £10,000 'golden hellos’. The Government announced £10 million to support this and we are currently considering how this is best delivered on the ground.

Reticulating Splines