Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the amount and proportion of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme disbursed for items other than the recruitment and employment of additional healthcare professionals in (a) London and (b) England in each year since that scheme's introduction.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) is designed to reimburse the salaries and on-costs of roles included in the Scheme. Under the 2019 contract agreement, NHS England and NHS Improvement contribute to the cost of the specific new clinical roles within Primary Care Networks (PCNs) over the period of the contract. Initially the funding provided 70% of ongoing salary costs plus on-costs for three roles - clinical pharmacists, physician associates and first-contact physiotherapists, with community paramedics recruited from 2021/22 and full funding for social prescribing link worker roles during the contract period.
Updated contracts for 2020/21 and 2021/2022 set out increases in the scale of the new roles. NHS England and NHS Improvement now reimburse 100% of salary and on-costs for range of additional roles and the number of staff funded under the scheme will increase to 26,000 by 2023/24. On average, each PCN will have approximately 20 full time equivalent staff by 2023/24 funded through the ARRS.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
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 Allied Health Professions workforce reconfiguration within primary care settings is sustainable.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Under the Primary Care Network Directed Enhanced Service, networks are able to recruit new roles to expand their care team with the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). NHS England and NHS Improvement supply practices with the description of the ARRS roles to inform practices and ensure they make the best decision in recruiting for their practice, to utilise staff to their potential.
In order to ensure that recruitment of allied health professionals (AHPs) into primary care is sustainable, we are supporting training, supervision and general practitioner’s understanding of these new roles. Health Education England also support AHPs to develop throughout their career, via advanced practice and new roles.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to help support the recruitment and retention of medical and nursing staff.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are on track to increase the number of nurses in the National Health Service by 50,000 over this Parliament. There are over 9,000 more nurses working in the NHS now compared to this time last year and 4,000 more doctors.
Applications to study nursing and midwifery are up 21% this year, following a 15% increase last year. Through the NHS People Plan we are working hard to support and retain the NHS workforce.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the numbers of (a) anaesthetists, (b) surgeons and (c) surgical care practitioners.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has increased the number of medical school places in England by 1,500, alongside opening five new medical schools across England. By increasing the supply of doctors, this will ensure a larger potential pipeline for anaesthetists and surgeons in coming years in the National Health Service. Since 2010, the number of doctors working in the surgical group of specialties has increased by over 25% and the number of anaesthetists has increased by over 26%.
Surgical care practitioners (SCPs) are drawn from existing registered healthcare professionals such nurses, operating department practitioners and other allied health professionals who have extended the scope of their practice. We are increasing the pool of staff SCPs can be drawn from.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the long term recruitment of (a) nurses and (b) doctors.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have committed to delivering 50,000 more nurses by the end of this Parliament. The latest NHS Digital statistics show the number of nurses has increased by 10,800 between March 2020 to March 2021, excluding health visitors and midwives. This commitment will be achieved through increased domestic and international recruitment and improved retention.
Health Education England is working with universities, the Medical Schools Council, Council of Deans of Health and the Royal Colleges to examine how COVID-19 may have impacted undergraduate cohorts and individuals in postgraduate medicine, including the impact on long-term recruitment.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the WHO guideline on health workforce development, attraction, recruitment and retention in rural and remote areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government welcomes the World Health Organization’s guideline on health workforce attraction, recruitment and retention in rural areas and is committed to ensuring there is a sufficient workforce supply across all geographies of England.
Five new medical schools have opened in hard-to-recruit areas, including rural and coastal locations in Sunderland, Lancashire, Chelmsford, Lincoln and Canterbury. To further attract trainees to remote geographies, foundation priority programmes were introduced in 2019 allowing applicants to rank their preference for selected priority programmes and be offered places prior to national allocation. The NHS People Plan has a key focus on retention. National Health Service organisations locally should shape their workforce plans to meet local workforce challenges focusing on both recruitment and retention to increase overall supply.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the long term recruitment of (a) nurses and (b) doctors.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Damian Green (Conservative - Ashford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the number of overseas-trained clinical technologists the NHS needs to recruit to fill the workforce gap.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have no plans to extend statutory regulation to clinical technologists at this time. No assessment has been made of the potential merits of the statutory regulation of clinical technologists nor any assessment of trends in the recruitment, number and development of non-statutory regulated clinical technologists. We do not hold data on how many overseas-trained clinical technologists the National Health Service needs to recruit.
The statutory regulation of healthcare professionals should only be used where the risks to public and patient protection cannot be addressed in other ways, such as through employer oversight or accredited voluntary registration. Anyone undertaking or seeking employment in a health and social care occupation, whether regulated or unregulated, will also be subject to employer checks. The Department does not have any current plans to bring clinical technologists into statutory regulation.
Clinical Technologists can register with the Register of Clinical Technologists which is a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The PSA sets standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations and accredits those registers that meet the standards. Accreditation provides assurance that a voluntary register is well run; for example, ensuring that registrants are required to meet high standards of personal behaviour, technical competence and, where relevant, business practice.
The Department does not collect data on the number of clinical technologists employed by the NHS.
Asked by: Damian Green (Conservative - Ashford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department had made of trends in the (a) recruitment, (b) number and (c) development of non-statutory regulated clinical technologists.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have no plans to extend statutory regulation to clinical technologists at this time. No assessment has been made of the potential merits of the statutory regulation of clinical technologists nor any assessment of trends in the recruitment, number and development of non-statutory regulated clinical technologists. We do not hold data on how many overseas-trained clinical technologists the National Health Service needs to recruit.
The statutory regulation of healthcare professionals should only be used where the risks to public and patient protection cannot be addressed in other ways, such as through employer oversight or accredited voluntary registration. Anyone undertaking or seeking employment in a health and social care occupation, whether regulated or unregulated, will also be subject to employer checks. The Department does not have any current plans to bring clinical technologists into statutory regulation.
Clinical Technologists can register with the Register of Clinical Technologists which is a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The PSA sets standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations and accredits those registers that meet the standards. Accreditation provides assurance that a voluntary register is well run; for example, ensuring that registrants are required to meet high standards of personal behaviour, technical competence and, where relevant, business practice.
The Department does not collect data on the number of clinical technologists employed by the NHS.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of covid-19 on the (a) recruitment and training of new podiatrists and (b) delivery of preventative outcomes for patients by podiatrists.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to ensuring that the National Health Service has the workforce it needs to deliver high quality care. As part of the new funding package for healthcare students non-repayable, training grants of at least £5,000 per academic year will be made available to eligible new and continuing pre-registration podiatry students, studying at English universities.
We know that for some professions there are particular challenges in recruiting suitable applicants to pre-registration courses and so as part of the new funding package we have also made available an additional specialist subject grant of £1,000 to eligible new students who choose to study in shortage professions, including podiatry. We will continue to monitor the impact of our policies, with data on numbers of acceptances onto podiatry courses expected to be available when the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service publish their end of cycle data later this year.