Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department plans to allocate to (a) recruiting and (b) training more Clinical Nurse Specialists.

The Spending Review 2020 provides £260 million to continue to grow the National Health Service workforce and support commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Full details on funding allocations towards NHS workforce budgets in 2021-22, including any related to clinical nurse specialists, will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.

Health Education England is facilitating a number of initiatives to increase Clinical Nurse Specialist capacity including the development of cancer nurses through provision of 250 training grants of up to £5,000 each in 2020/21. The grants are aimed at existing and aspiring Cancer Nurse Specialists to enable them to undertake additional training to develop specialist clinical, leadership, education or research capabilities.