Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason midwives and health visitors were not included in the Government’s target to increase the number of nurses; and on what date his Department took the decision not to include them in that target.

The NHS Interim People Plan, published June 2019, stated that “shortages in nursing are the single biggest and most urgent we need to address”. Although the specific target focuses on nurses, many of the actions to support delivery will also recruit to other professions, including midwives and allied health professionals. This includes the non-repayable training grant of £5,000 and the programme of retention measures. Local authority commissioners of health visiting services may select a range of different providers, including National Health Service trusts and private sector organisations. There is no single source of data for health visitors.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £95 million to support the recruitment of 1,200 more midwives and 100 obstetricians and a support package to enable NHS trusts to establish and expand midwifery international recruitment.