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 encourage the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of cancer specialist nurses.

We have provided £52 million in 2021/22 for Health Education England to invest in the cancer and diagnostics workforce, including offering training grants for 250 nurses wishing to become cancer clinical nurse specialists and for an additional 100 nurses wishing to become chemotherapy nurses. Following the Spending Review in 2021, individual budgets for 2022/23 to 2024/25, including for training the cancer workforce, will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.

The NHS People Plan includes a programme to retain staff through prioritising health and wellbeing. All staff have access to resources such as health and wellbeing apps, a helpline and text service and 40 mental health hubs. The NHS Retention Programme is also targeting interventions to support staff to stay in the profession.