Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to provide healthcare providers with cultural competency training for black individuals seeking HIV-related services.

The Department has no current plans to provide healthcare providers with cultural competency training. Individual employers providing HIV care are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role.

The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of respective independent statutory regulatory bodies who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses. It is the responsibility of Higher Education institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.