Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS vacancy statistics, published in June 2022, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the 132,000 full-time equivalent NHS staff vacancies on staff (a) morale and (b) workloads.

We are aiming to deliver an additional 50,000 nurses by the end of March 2024, with over 29,000 more nurses working in the National Health Service compared with September 2019. We have also funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England and delivered five new medical schools in England.

The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Blackburn.

The national health and wellbeing offer includes a confidential text support service, free access to a range of wellbeing apps and support for line managers in having safe and effective wellbeing conversations. In 2022/23, over £45 million has been invested to support the continuation the health and wellbeing support offer, which includes 40 mental health hubs providing outreach and assessment services for frontline staff receive rapid access to evidence based mental health services, the Professional Nurse Advocates and expanding the NHS Practitioner Health service. The NHS Retention Programme aims to understand why staff are leaving, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well.