Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of applying the Scandinavian model of career breaks to workforce planning and retention in the NHS.

The NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well. This includes considering and building up the evidence base, including the effect of career breaks. The National Health Service terms and conditions provides for career breaks and all NHS employers will have a career break policy in place.