Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what training and support the NHS provides to doctors who have returned from long-term career breaks.

The Induction and Refresher Scheme for general practitioners (GPs), launched in 2015, is designed for doctors who have been out of practice in the United Kingdom for more than two years and have therefore dropped off the national performers list.

NHS England also funds the Retained Doctor Scheme. This scheme provides doctors, who are on the performers list but who want to remain in or return to practice (for example after a career break) and work a maximum of four clinical sessions, with protected time for continuing professional development (CPD) and educational support. The scheme is designed to allow doctors to remain in practice when standard part time working is unavailable or does not suit the doctor’s working patterns.

The GP easy return to practice forms part of the GP Forward View, published in April 2016 by NHS England.