Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to continue to fund the NHS staff mental health and wellbeing hubs beyond 2022/23.

Staff mental health hubs were established in October 2020 with funding subsequently extended to March 2023. They were funded on a non-recurrent basis using additional funding from Government as a short-term response to the pressure on the workforce from COVID-19. A number of systems across the National Health Service have chosen to continue to fund the work of the hubs. We are working with NHS England to explore how we can ensure all staff can access specialist support when they need it.

The health and wellbeing of NHS staff is a priority. NHS England has developed a range of health and wellbeing support for staff and earlier this year published a strategy to grow and strengthen occupational health and wellbeing services across the NHS. NHS staff can continue to access NHS Practitioner Health, a national support service for staff with more complex mental health needs brough about by serious issues such as trauma or addiction.