Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what accountability mechanisms are in place to ensure local NHS People Plans include a mental health workforce strategy to reduce vacancy rates, retain staff and create the new roles needed to fulfil their proposals on mental health.

Supporting and expanding the mental health workforce is a key priority for this Government. The interim NHS People Plan set out the immediate actions we will take to fill vacancies and secure the staff we need for the future.

The full NHS People Plan will set out a new operating model for workforce and systematic actions to ensure healthy, inclusive and compassionate cultures for all staff working in the National Health Service, both improving staff experience and enhancing retention.

Alongside this, NHS England and NHS Improvement will work closely with all local sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems to refine and improve their existing mental health workforce plans and develop robust plans to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan ambitions.