Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of development and training needs in the nursing workforce.

The Government has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan for the next 15 years, which will look at the mix and number of staff required and will set out the actions and reforms needed across the National Health Service, including nurses.

The Government continues to support career progression by investing in continued professional development to help clinical staff advance their careers, develop new clinical skills to enhance the care they are able to provide to patients, obtain advanced practice qualifications and move more easily between different roles in different parts of the NHS.

Programmes such as apprenticeships and blended learning offer new routes into healthcare professions, including nursing. Health Education England, now part of NHS England, recently published the Educator Workforce Strategy, setting out actions that will lead to sufficient capacity and quality of educators to allow the growth in healthcare workforce that is needed to deliver care now and in the future.