Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the impact of the number of anaesthesia associates on the quality of care.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), which was published on 30 June 2023, sets out an expansion of new and extended roles to increase the breadth of skills within multidisciplinary teams, better meet the needs of patients, their families and unpaid carers, and enable more care to be delivered in primary and community settings. The National Health Service is determined to continue to invest in training opportunities and the development of career paths for the whole workforce. The LTWP set out that training places for anaesthesia associates (AAs) will increase to 250 by 2028/29. This will support our ambition to increase places to 280 a year by 2031/32.

We strongly recommend that employers only consider recruiting AAs who are on the AA Managed Voluntary Register (MVR) which is currently held by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA). It enables supervisors and employers to check whether an individual is qualified and safe to work in the United Kingdom.