Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to (a) increase recruitment of ambulance staff and (b) ensure retention of ambulance staff for (i) the South Central Ambulance Service and (ii) UK wide ambulance services.

In 2022/23, NHS England and NHS Improvement are allocating £150 million to support improvements to response times through retention and additional call handler recruitment. In September 2021, £1.7 million was provided for health and wellbeing initiatives for staff in England, including immediate welfare needs. The recruitment and retention of ambulance staff elsewhere in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter.

This funding has allowed South Central Ambulance Service to increase its recruitment of 999 call handlers. A working group has been also established to review the support provided to staff, such as raising awareness of counselling services.