Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to maintain or increase the number of district nurses; and if he will make a statement.

Health Education England (HEE) operate an annual comprehensive planning process to ensure their investments meet the future needs of the population including the National Health Service requirement for district nurses. This process determines the education commissioning volumes for the following financial year and is published in the Workforce Plan for England.

Since 2013/14 HEE has increased district nursing education and training commissions by over 25%. In 2016/17 they have commissioned 505 district nurse training places in their Workforce Plan for England maintaining the levels of commissions from 2015/16. Workforce commissions for 2017/18 will be published in December 2016.