Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of pelvic physiotherapists required for perinatal pelvic health services.

No specific estimate has been made. NHS England’s baseline assessments from a majority of systems in England implementing perinatal pelvic health services has demonstrated significant regional variation in existing pelvic health physiotherapy staffing.

An objective of perinatal pelvic health services is to increase the number of pelvic health physiotherapists and reduce this variation to ensure that all women receive timely access to care according to guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. These are currently being established in two-thirds of integrated care systems. As of September 2022, there are an additional 40 pelvic health physiotherapists with further recruitment expected ahead of the full national deployment from 2023.