Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2018 to Question 129467, if he will take steps to encourage podiatrists to seek leadership positions in foot protection services.

The National Health Service is committed to providing targeted development opportunities for staff through its range of leadership programmes delivered by the NHS Leadership Academy. These programmes encourage multi-professional representation at leadership level. Further information can be found at:

https://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/programmes/

Podiatrists are further encouraged to take up leadership positions by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance 19 to commissioners and providers, which states that the foot protection service should be led by a podiatrist. The NICE Clinical Guidance 19 can be found at:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng19/resources/shared-learning

Additionally, Health Education England (HEE) is working in partnership with the College of Podiatry and the profession to raise its confidence, capacity and the recognition of its contribution across all aspects of podiatry, which includes foot protection. Last year HEE

worked with the College to raise the profile of the workforce including podiatrists in foot protection roles. Further information can be found at:

https://www.improvingdiabeticfootcare.com/