Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to NHS trusts on ensuring that (a) reception and (b) administrative staff are proficient in English.

National Health Service trusts are independent bodies and as such have responsibility for their own recruitment policies and for ensuring their appointment procedures are aligned with employment law and good human resources practice.

Employers have responsibility for assuring that individuals have the necessary written and verbal linguistic skills in line with the English language requirement for public sector workers: code of practice, in addition to any necessary professional skills and qualifications, when recruiting to NHS roles. The English language requirement for public sector workers: code of practice is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-language-requirement-for-public-sector-workers-code-of-practice