Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many unfilled nursing posts (a) there are in the NHS and (b) there were in the NHS in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Approximately 80% of vacancies are filled by a combination of bank and agency staff. Bank and agency staff are also used to fill non-vacancy gaps such as sickness and maternity, therefore NHS Improvement is unable to provide a specific proportion of vacancies which are currently unfilled by temporary staff.
Many of the positions considered to be ‘vacant’ are in fact filled by highly trained staff who either choose to work additional shifts alongside their substantive posts, or who have chosen to work flexibly full time. The Department is committed to developing staff banks in a way that reflects the contribution of this vital part of the workforce.
While there are vacancies in the National Health Service, a lot of work is underway to improve recruitment and retention. Trusts make decisions based on local needs about how they fill vacant posts, including looking at short-term options for cover such as bank and agency staff.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
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 UK leaving the EU on trends in the level of nursing vacancies in each year until 2021.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department is working closely with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health Education England, NHS England and others in the health and care system to understand the impact of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union on nursing in the UK. While we do not expect our exit from the European Union to lead to a significant number of health staff leaving on or around exit day, we are not complacent and are continually monitoring staffing levels and working with other Government departments and local areas to put in place mechanisms to respond to any shortages.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses were employed using bank and locum staff in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Since April 2017 NHS Improvement collects data on the number of bank and agency staff employed by individual National Health Service providers.
The following table shows the number of full time equivalent doctors and nursing and midwifery bank and agency staff employed by NHS providers for every quarter since June 2017 to latest data.
| 2017/18 Q1 | 2017/18 Q2 | 2017/18 Q3 | 2017/18 Q4 | 2018/19 Q1 | 2018/19 Q2 | 2018/19 Q3 |
Total bank and agency- nursing and midwifery workforce | 30,619 | 33,110 | 31,415 | 37,689 | 33,137 | 33,221 | 32,008 |
Total bank and agency - doctors’ workforce | 8,441 | 8,887 | 8,820 | 9,640 | 9,297 | 9,093 | 9,294 |
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of advertised Consultant posts are unfilled; and what assessment he has made of the reasons for those vacancies.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The proportion of unfilled advertised consultant posts in England is not held centrally.
Since April 2017, NHS Improvement collect vacancy rates of medical staff from individual National Health Service providers and publish them as part of their ‘Quarterly performance of the NHS provider sector’ report found at the following link:
The Department is taking steps to increase the supply of consultants in the future. By September 2020, there will be 1,500 more undergraduate medical school places every year by September 2020, 630 of which were taken up in September 2018. Five brand new medical schools will help deliver these places, alongside existing medical schools which have demonstrated a commitment to sending more trainees to rural or coastal areas and increasing the number of general practitioners and mental health specialists.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
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 recruit more community nurses.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
It is the responsibility of individual health and care employers to have staffing arrangements in place that deliver safe and effective care. This includes recruiting the workforce required to support these levels and meet local needs.
The National Health Service Long Term Plan, published 7 January 2019, made clear the importance of moving care into the community, and the government’s commitment to achieving this. We know that to deliver this, we need to have the right community services workforce with the skills, knowledge and capacity to meet current and future needs of an ageing population with more complex needs.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asked Baroness Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement, to oversee the delivery of a Workforce Implementation Plan to be published in the spring.
Health Education England (HEE) is leading a review of community nursing to better understand the skills and knowledge required within a contemporary community nursing workforce, both for now and into the future.
HEE is also proactively encouraging more people to train to become learning disability nurses through a number of initiatives, including:
- An accelerated postgraduate nurse programme for mental health and learning disabilities to attract high-achieving graduates into a career in nursing; and
- Ensuring nurses in other sectors have the opportunities to develop their skills further to work in learning disability nursing.
Announced on 9 May 2018, students who commenced loan funded postgraduate pre-registration nursing courses in the 2018/19 academic year will be eligible for a ‘golden hello’ payment of £10,000 once they have graduated and go on to work in learning disability, mental health or district nursing. Payments will be made to these graduates once they take up in employment in the health and care sector in England.
Working with the NHS and the university sector, the Government is finalising the most effective way to administer and introduce the scheme and will set out details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
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 recruit additional nurses with a specialism in learning (a) difficulties and (b) disabilities.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
It is the responsibility of individual health and care employers to have staffing arrangements in place that deliver safe and effective care. This includes recruiting the workforce required to support these levels and meet local needs.
The National Health Service Long Term Plan, published 7 January 2019, made clear the importance of moving care into the community, and the government’s commitment to achieving this. We know that to deliver this, we need to have the right community services workforce with the skills, knowledge and capacity to meet current and future needs of an ageing population with more complex needs.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asked Baroness Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement, to oversee the delivery of a Workforce Implementation Plan to be published in the spring.
Health Education England (HEE) is leading a review of community nursing to better understand the skills and knowledge required within a contemporary community nursing workforce, both for now and into the future.
HEE is also proactively encouraging more people to train to become learning disability nurses through a number of initiatives, including:
- An accelerated postgraduate nurse programme for mental health and learning disabilities to attract high-achieving graduates into a career in nursing; and
- Ensuring nurses in other sectors have the opportunities to develop their skills further to work in learning disability nursing.
Announced on 9 May 2018, students who commenced loan funded postgraduate pre-registration nursing courses in the 2018/19 academic year will be eligible for a ‘golden hello’ payment of £10,000 once they have graduated and go on to work in learning disability, mental health or district nursing. Payments will be made to these graduates once they take up in employment in the health and care sector in England.
Working with the NHS and the university sector, the Government is finalising the most effective way to administer and introduce the scheme and will set out details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make invasive Group B Streptococcus infection a notifiable disease.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
There are no plans to make Group B streptococcus infection a notifiable disease in England.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
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 NHS Resolution's claims management system has an injury code specific to invasive Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection to improve the quality of data collection on GBS clinical negligence cases.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS Resolution handles clinical negligence claims on behalf of National Health Service organisations and independent sector providers of NHS care in England. All claims received are categorised against pre-defined ‘cause’ codes on its claims management system. The cause code refers to the main cause(s) of the incident in relation to the claim.
NHS Resolution has advised that it is in the process of considering a new cause code for ‘Neonatal’ with a possible sub-code for Group B streptococcus. A decision on this is expected by summer 2019.
NHS Resolution uses the codes to support the production of claims scorecards for NHS trusts which enables trusts to ascertain potential risks within their organisation and assess where local interventions are needed.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
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 reduce the level of turnover of social care staff.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department continues to work with its delivery partner, Skills for Care, to improve standards of training and qualifications of social care workers include increasing the uptake of the Care Certificate and qualifications in social care.
In addition, the Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across social care and recognises the significant challenges in supporting and retaining our social care workforce. We are working with Skills for Care, to understand trends in retention and turnover rates of social care staff and will use this information to develop policies to address any workforce gaps. The Government has committed to publish an Adult Social Care Green Paper at the earliest opportunity setting out its proposals for reform in this sector.
Recruiting more people to work in the sector is a priority for this Government and we are launching a national adult social care recruitment campaign in early February. This will raise the profile of the sector, build awareness of the rich variety of careers on offer, and attract the right people, with the right values, to deliver the very best care. The campaign will also support providers to improve their recruitment and retention practices.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
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 (a) improve the standards of training and (b) establish qualifications for social care workers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department continues to work with its delivery partner, Skills for Care, to improve standards of training and qualifications of social care workers include increasing the uptake of the Care Certificate and qualifications in social care.
In addition, the Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across social care and recognises the significant challenges in supporting and retaining our social care workforce. We are working with Skills for Care, to understand trends in retention and turnover rates of social care staff and will use this information to develop policies to address any workforce gaps. The Government has committed to publish an Adult Social Care Green Paper at the earliest opportunity setting out its proposals for reform in this sector.
Recruiting more people to work in the sector is a priority for this Government and we are launching a national adult social care recruitment campaign in early February. This will raise the profile of the sector, build awareness of the rich variety of careers on offer, and attract the right people, with the right values, to deliver the very best care. The campaign will also support providers to improve their recruitment and retention practices.