Midwives: Graduate Guarantee

Baroness Manzoor Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Through NHS England’s student movement tool, forecasting on the workforce and national analysis are being undertaken to assess the areas of risk—my noble friend is right to raise those concerns. That is shared with NHS England’s regional teams so that they can manage and monitor workforce positions directly with providers.

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the comments made by the Minister. However, she will be aware that, as well as having a shortage of midwives in place—and we have seen the terrible effects of poor service delivery in antenatal and postnatal care—we have a significant shortage of health visitors, who give advice regarding immunisations, development, feeding and so forth. Some of those health visitors have caseloads of up to 1,000 families. That is not sustainable and, frankly, is quite dangerous. What are the Government going to do to address this?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Again, I refer to the forthcoming 10-year health and care workforce plan, which will take a multidisciplinary approach. I certainly share the noble Baroness’s views about the value of health visitors. As we move services into the community and develop the neighbourhood health service, that will require the greater use of roles such as health visitors. Ultimately, this is a local matter about local employment of staff to meet local need.