Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have undertaken of the distribution of healthcare professionals across regions; and how workforce planning reflects areas of greatest health needs.

There are a range of sources that present data detailing how staff working in National Health Service roles are distributed across England. These published sources include, but are not limited to, information on the trust and region of staff employed by NHS trusts and integrated care boards, information on vacancies in the NHS, and information on general medical practice staff. This information is available on the NHS.UK website.

The forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out further detail on how we will ensure the NHS has the right staff, in the right places, to deliver high quality care for patients when they need it.

Workforce planning for medical staff already means that Medical Foundation and Specialty training posts are allocated across the United Kingdom to support workforce needs, including in rural and hard to recruit areas. While some locations have historically found recruitment more challenging, we now have fewer vacancies in the Foundation Programme. NHS England is working with a number of medical schools to pilot the allocation of students directly to their local foundation schools.