Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to improve the recruitment and retention of consultant psychiatrists in the east of England.

Locally, responsibility for staffing levels, including the recruitment and retention of consultant psychiatrists, rests with individual National Health Service trusts and their boards who are best placed to manage the staff they need to provide a given service.

NHS Improvement is working with local trusts such as the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust as part of its Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme. This includes working with Trust Boards and service leaders to consider how flexible working arrangements and promoting staff wellbeing can improve the retention of the psychiatry workforce.