Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NHS trusts on the provision of (a) anti-racism and (b) unconscious bias training for NHS staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have been working together to announce a series of measures to tackle antisemitism and racism across the National Health Service, which includes the introduction of mandatory antisemitism and anti-racism training for all NHS staff.
In terms of unconscious bias training, there is no national NHS-wide policy on this training in the NHS. Individual NHS organisations have responsibility for training their own staff and provide relevant training where appropriate.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of discontinuing unconscious bias training.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The decision to discontinue unconscious bias training was made in 2020 under the previous administration. No subsequent assessment of the policy has since been made.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department provides unconscious bias training; and whether his Department plans to provide unconscious bias training to staff from NHS England when that organisation is abolished.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department aligns itself to the Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion approach to learning and to the use of evidence led interventions. The Department does not provide unconscious bias training to its staff, and there are no current plans to provide unconscious bias training for NHS England staff.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2025 to Question 32585 on NHS: Training, what assessment he has made of the (a) efficiency and (b) effectiveness of NHS spending on unconscious basis training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has not been a specific assessment made of spend on unconscious bias training in the National Health Service. As explained in the answer to Question 32585, there is no national NHS-wide policy on unconscious bias training in the NHS. Individual NHS organisations have responsibility for training their own staff, and provide relevant training where appropriate.
Taxpayers rightly expect value for money from the funding that is spent in the NHS. The NHS and the Department’s arms-length bodies are continually expected to review their expenditure, with a view to finding efficiency savings and ensuring value for money for the public purse.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that maternity healthcare professionals receive training on (a) unconscious bias and (b) culturally competent care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Taking action to tackle racism experienced by both staff and patients is essential to providing safe services for everyone. It is right that the National Health Service takes proactive steps to address prejudice and discrimination where it exists across the NHS workforce.
NHS England is ensuring maternity healthcare professionals receive training on unconscious bias and culturally competent care through the Core Competency Framework and the provision of the Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Maternity Services e-learning course. Equity-focused leadership development is being embedded through the national Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme.
In June 2023, NHS England published an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan, which sets out targeted actions to address prejudice and discrimination in the NHS workforce. The plan seeks to increase accountability for all leaders in delivering improvements, and to create an environment that eliminates the conditions in which bullying, discrimination, harassment, and physical violence at work occur.
For maternity services specifically, all local areas, including those in urban and rural areas, are required to equip staff to provide culturally competent care through their local Equity and Equality Actions plans, such as by providing appropriate training to staff for their local population. NHS England is also developing a respectful and inclusive maternity care toolkit which aims to improve access, experiences, and outcomes for service users and to support staff to provide culturally sensitive care.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that maternity services (a) are free from racial discrimination and (b) effectively meet the needs of women from all ethnic backgrounds.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Taking action to tackle racism experienced by both staff and patients is essential to providing safe services for everyone. It is right that the National Health Service takes proactive steps to address prejudice and discrimination where it exists across the NHS workforce.
NHS England is ensuring maternity healthcare professionals receive training on unconscious bias and culturally competent care through the Core Competency Framework and the provision of the Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Maternity Services e-learning course. Equity-focused leadership development is being embedded through the national Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme.
In June 2023, NHS England published an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan, which sets out targeted actions to address prejudice and discrimination in the NHS workforce. The plan seeks to increase accountability for all leaders in delivering improvements, and to create an environment that eliminates the conditions in which bullying, discrimination, harassment, and physical violence at work occur.
For maternity services specifically, all local areas, including those in urban and rural areas, are required to equip staff to provide culturally competent care through their local Equity and Equality Actions plans, such as by providing appropriate training to staff for their local population. NHS England is also developing a respectful and inclusive maternity care toolkit which aims to improve access, experiences, and outcomes for service users and to support staff to provide culturally sensitive care.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to culturally appropriate maternity care for women from diverse ethnic backgrounds in (a) urban and (b) rural areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Taking action to tackle racism experienced by both staff and patients is essential to providing safe services for everyone. It is right that the National Health Service takes proactive steps to address prejudice and discrimination where it exists across the NHS workforce.
NHS England is ensuring maternity healthcare professionals receive training on unconscious bias and culturally competent care through the Core Competency Framework and the provision of the Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Maternity Services e-learning course. Equity-focused leadership development is being embedded through the national Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme.
In June 2023, NHS England published an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan, which sets out targeted actions to address prejudice and discrimination in the NHS workforce. The plan seeks to increase accountability for all leaders in delivering improvements, and to create an environment that eliminates the conditions in which bullying, discrimination, harassment, and physical violence at work occur.
For maternity services specifically, all local areas, including those in urban and rural areas, are required to equip staff to provide culturally competent care through their local Equity and Equality Actions plans, such as by providing appropriate training to staff for their local population. NHS England is also developing a respectful and inclusive maternity care toolkit which aims to improve access, experiences, and outcomes for service users and to support staff to provide culturally sensitive care.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that culturally competent (a) midwifery and (b) obstetric training is available in the NHS; and how his Department assesses the effectiveness of these steps.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to make sure that all women and babies receive the high-quality care they deserve, regardless of their background, location, or ethnicity. To deliver this, it is important that those working in maternity and neonatal services receive the required training needed to deliver culturally competent care.
While it is the responsibility of employers in the health system to ensure that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver safe and effective treatment for patients, NHS England is taking steps to ensure that maternity healthcare professionals receive training on unconscious bias and culturally competent care through the Core Competency Framework and through provision of the Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Maternity Services e-learning course. Over 15,400 maternity staff have completed the e-learning module, which supports staff to better understand and meet the needs of diverse communities.
NHS England has also embedded equity-focused leadership development through the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme. All 150 maternity and neonatal units in England have participated in the programme. No assessment has been made on the effectiveness of these steps.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has a policy on unconscious bias training in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In June 2023, NHS England published an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Improvement Plan that sets out targeted actions to address prejudice and discrimination in the National Health Service workforce. It is right that the NHS takes proactive steps to addresses prejudice and discrimination where it exists across the NHS workforce.
There is no national NHS-wide policy on unconscious bias training in the NHS. Individual NHS organisations have responsibility for training their own staff and provide relevant training where appropriate.
Some elements of unconscious bias training are available to NHS staff at both a national and local level and includes access to e-learning resources. NHS Employers has published a good practice framework for the delivery of equality and diversity training in the NHS and which includes unconscious bias training. This is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsemployers.org/system/files/2021-10/NHS%20good%20practice%20guidance_Final.pdf
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) reduce missing incidents and (b) provide additional support to people at risk of going missing who are care experienced.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Effective multi-agency working is the key to reducing missing person incidents, particularly for vulnerable cohorts, such as children with care experience who are at more likely to go missing repeatedly.
The Missing Persons Authorised Professional Practice (APP), issued by the College of Policing, sets out best practice guidance for all missing person investigations for police forces in England and Wales in order to prevent missing incidents as well as ensure that all safeguarding partners play a role in an investigation; this includes multi-agency enquiries. The APP for missing persons is publicly available on the College’s website.
In addition to the APP, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for Missing Persons has developed the ‘Multi-agency response for adults missing from health and care settings’ framework, which is being rolled out, and the ‘Missing Children from Care’ framework, which has been piloted in West Yorkshire. These frameworks outline good practice that can be adopted by local areas when setting up their own multi-agency protocols for the strategic and operational response to a missing incident, with an aim to ensure that the appropriate safeguarding partner responds in the best interest of the missing person.
In response to concerns about unconscious bias in the police response to missing persons from BAME communities, the Home Office has funded the NPCC for Missing Persons to conduct research to explore disproportionality and discrimination in police missing persons investigations; comparing how risk is categorised in different ethnic groups. The final report is nearing completion. The NPCC lead for Missing Persons is committed to working with partner agencies to understand issues of disproportionality and addressing any issues. I will continue to monitor developments and insights from partners to ensure our response remains effective.