Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much was spent on encouraging students to take on the career path of midwifery in the last five years.

NHS England has several initiatives which support the encouragement of students to take on the career pathway of midwifery.

To remove barriers to training in clinical roles, including midwifery, eligible students receive a non-repayable grant of £5,000 a year through the Learning Support Fund.

The National Health Service has a long-established campaign process for promoting NHS careers, including midwifery, locally and nationally. This includes the We are the NHS campaign. NHS Health Careers, as part of NHS England, provides support to people in education and at different stages of their career, to learn more about all the career opportunities available in the NHS.

NHS England is expanding routes into healthcare professions through apprenticeships and blended learning programmes, allowing students to choose to study in a flexible way that reflects their needs.

To ensure midwifery remains an attractive career, the Government will also make sure that staff are treated with the respect they deserve, improve their working conditions and reform the way they deliver care.

Due to the national and regional aspects of funding, NHS England is unable to provide a total cost for individual midwifery promotion spend.