Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate staffing levels and skill mix within NHS community nursing teams.

An important part of the National Health Service reforms was to establish clinical commissioning groups at which commissioning decisions are informed by a wide range of local clinicians. Therefore, the shape of community nursing services are organised locally, following advice from clinicians. This commissioning process also takes into account the local authority’s views through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and the local Health and Wellbeing Strategy, to ensure that services are based on the need of the local population, within the resources available and on evidenced-based best practice.

NHS England has commissioned the Queen’s Nursing Institution to develop a workforce planning tool to support local areas in making sure they have the right number of community nurses for their needs. The Chief Nursing Officer has also set up a working group which is looking specifically at what we can do to increase the number of community nurses.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is also planning to produce guidance on safe staffing for community nursing care settings over the next two years. The development of this guidance and accreditation of related tools will ensure that all providers have what they need to make decisions to secure safe staffing levels.