Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS staff are trained to provide high-quality care for people living with (a) Parkinson’s and (b) other conditions.

Individual employers are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role. Regulated healthcare professionals need to meet the standards of education and training set by the relevant professional regulator. The regulators set and enforce the standards that their registrants must adhere to and are responsible for ensuring that healthcare professionals have the necessary skills and knowledge to join the register.

NHS England has published a RightCare toolkit which aims to address challenges in providing services for those with progressive neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease by highlighting key areas of focus and actions to take. This includes actions to ensure that services are equipped with appropriate skills to identify, assess, and manage progressive long-term neurological conditions.