Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) rheumatology consultants, (b) rheumatology clinical nurse specialists, (c) specialist rheumatology physiotherapists, (d) psychologists, (e) podiatrists, (f) occupational health therapists and (g) specialist rheumatology pharmacists in England; and what steps he is taking to fill vacancies in those occupations.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, by staff group, working in England, as of February 2023.
Staff group | Number of FTE staff |
Rheumatology Consultants | 695 |
Rheumatology Clinical Nurse Specialists | No data held |
Specialist Rheumatology Physiotherapists | No data held |
Psychologists (Applied Psychology) | 8,399 |
Podiatrists | 2,549 |
Occupational Health Therapists | 16,419 |
Specialist Rheumatology Pharmacists | No data held |
Source: NHS Workforce Statistics
To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan for the NHS workforce for the next 15 years. The Government has committed to publishing the Long-Term Workforce Plan shortly, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. The long-term NHS workforce plan will look at the mix and number of staff required and will set out the actions and reforms across the NHS that will be needed to reduce supply gaps and improve retention. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
On 10 January 2023, Health Education England (HEE) announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts will be created for this year, including an additional five rheumatology specialty training posts. Rheumatology is a popular specialty with over 95% of training places being filled.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to specialised psychology services for rheumatology patients.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All local areas are expected to commission NHS Talking Therapies services which provide integrated psychological therapies for people with long-term health conditions including rheumatic conditions. As highlighted in the specialist service specification for rheumatology, a multidisciplinary approach is expected, and rheumatology teams work closely with other specialties, often involving joint clinics, including psychology and psychiatry services.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) increase access to podiatry services for rheumatology patients, (b) increase access to specialised psychology services for rheumatology patients, (c) increase the number of pharmacists working within rheumatology services, (d) increase the number of allied health professionals working within rheumatology teams, (e) increase the number of sports and exercise consultants, (f) increase access to sports and exercise medicine and (g) improve the skill mix in primary care to diagnose, treat and manage Musculoskeletal and rheumatic conditions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) rheumatology consultants, (b) rheumatology clinical nurse specialists, (c) specialist rheumatology physiotherapists, (d) psychologists, (e) podiatrists, (f) occupational health therapists and (g) specialist rheumatology pharmacists in England; and what steps he is taking to fill vacancies in these professions.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, by staff group, working in National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England, as of January 2023.
Staff Group | Number of FTE staff |
Rheumatology Consultants | 694 |
Rheumatology Clinical Nurse Specialists | No data held |
Specialist Rheumatology Physiotherapists | No data held |
Psychologists (Applied Psychology) | 8,349 |
Podiatrists | 2,548 |
Occupational Health Therapists | 16,351 |
Specialist Rheumatology Pharmacists | No data held |
Source: NHS Workforce Statistics
To support the workforce, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan for the NHS workforce for the next 15 years. It will look at the mix and number of staff required and will set out the actions and reforms across the NHS that will be needed to reduce supply gaps and improve retention. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
On 10 of January 2023, Health Education England announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts will be created for this year, including an additional five rheumatology specialty training posts. Rheumatology is a popular specialty with a fill rate of over 95%.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing regulations for the professional use of the title psychologist.
Answered by Will Quince
In the United Kingdom, practitioner psychologists are already subject to statutory regulation by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), and HCPC’s legislation protects nine designated psychologist professional titles in law. This means that anyone not registered with the HCPC as a practitioner psychologist who uses one of these designated titles may be breaking the law and could be prosecuted.
The Government keeps the professions subject to statutory regulation under review and recently published a consultation, ‘Healthcare regulation: deciding when statutory regulation is appropriate’. The consultation ran from 6 January to 31 March 2022 and sought views on the criteria that should be used to determine when statutory regulation of a healthcare profession is appropriate.
Officials are currently analysing the responses to this consultation and the Government will publish its response in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the increase in the numbers of prisoners under Imprisonment for Public Protection serving ten or more years beyond their original tariff.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) continues to work closely with Samaritans for the delivery of the Listener Scheme, through which selected prisoners are trained to provide support to fellow prisoners in emotional distress. It is important to highlight that Prison Chaplaincy provides not only faith and belief advice but pastoral care to prisoners of all faiths, beliefs and of none, irrespective of sentence type or length, in support of HMPPS’ commitment to decency, safety and rehabilitation.
As the number of those serving IPP sentences in prison who have never been released reduces, the proportion of cases which are the most complex and high risk increases. This does mean that we should expect that the number of first releases will continue to slow and the time spent past tariff will increase. However, the IPP Action Plan is focused on, firstly, ensuring each IPP prisoner has a sentence plan, regularly reviewed, with clear objectives as to what the prisoner has to do to reduce risk and, secondly, that the prisoner is held in a prison with an opportunity to achieve those objectives.
In the Government response to the Justice Select Committee’s IPP report, we committed to refreshing the IPP Action Plan, focusing not only on important changes to improve the prospects of IPP offenders making progress towards a prospective safe and sustainable release, but also to ensure there are robust processes to drive effective monitoring and accountability for delivery of that plan.
The Women’s Estate Psychology Service (WEPS) have implemented a National IPP strategy which takes a bespoke case management approach to each woman serving an IPP sentence. The overarching goal of the strategy is to ensure that all are proactively supported to progress through their prison sentences as quickly as possible. Psychologists regularly review cases and jointly work with prison and probation colleagues to remove barriers to progression and expedite completion of interventions and services. There are, as of end December 2022, 40 women in custody serving an IPP sentence, 12 of whom have never been released.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what emotional support and spiritual provision is available to prisoners under Imprisonment for Public Protection.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) continues to work closely with Samaritans for the delivery of the Listener Scheme, through which selected prisoners are trained to provide support to fellow prisoners in emotional distress. It is important to highlight that Prison Chaplaincy provides not only faith and belief advice but pastoral care to prisoners of all faiths, beliefs and of none, irrespective of sentence type or length, in support of HMPPS’ commitment to decency, safety and rehabilitation.
As the number of those serving IPP sentences in prison who have never been released reduces, the proportion of cases which are the most complex and high risk increases. This does mean that we should expect that the number of first releases will continue to slow and the time spent past tariff will increase. However, the IPP Action Plan is focused on, firstly, ensuring each IPP prisoner has a sentence plan, regularly reviewed, with clear objectives as to what the prisoner has to do to reduce risk and, secondly, that the prisoner is held in a prison with an opportunity to achieve those objectives.
In the Government response to the Justice Select Committee’s IPP report, we committed to refreshing the IPP Action Plan, focusing not only on important changes to improve the prospects of IPP offenders making progress towards a prospective safe and sustainable release, but also to ensure there are robust processes to drive effective monitoring and accountability for delivery of that plan.
The Women’s Estate Psychology Service (WEPS) have implemented a National IPP strategy which takes a bespoke case management approach to each woman serving an IPP sentence. The overarching goal of the strategy is to ensure that all are proactively supported to progress through their prison sentences as quickly as possible. Psychologists regularly review cases and jointly work with prison and probation colleagues to remove barriers to progression and expedite completion of interventions and services. There are, as of end December 2022, 40 women in custody serving an IPP sentence, 12 of whom have never been released.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of women serving sentences under Imprisonment for Public Protection.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. By law, prisoners serving indeterminate sentences who have completed their tariff will be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) continues to work closely with Samaritans for the delivery of the Listener Scheme, through which selected prisoners are trained to provide support to fellow prisoners in emotional distress. It is important to highlight that Prison Chaplaincy provides not only faith and belief advice but pastoral care to prisoners of all faiths, beliefs and of none, irrespective of sentence type or length, in support of HMPPS’ commitment to decency, safety and rehabilitation.
As the number of those serving IPP sentences in prison who have never been released reduces, the proportion of cases which are the most complex and high risk increases. This does mean that we should expect that the number of first releases will continue to slow and the time spent past tariff will increase. However, the IPP Action Plan is focused on, firstly, ensuring each IPP prisoner has a sentence plan, regularly reviewed, with clear objectives as to what the prisoner has to do to reduce risk and, secondly, that the prisoner is held in a prison with an opportunity to achieve those objectives.
In the Government response to the Justice Select Committee’s IPP report, we committed to refreshing the IPP Action Plan, focusing not only on important changes to improve the prospects of IPP offenders making progress towards a prospective safe and sustainable release, but also to ensure there are robust processes to drive effective monitoring and accountability for delivery of that plan.
The Women’s Estate Psychology Service (WEPS) have implemented a National IPP strategy which takes a bespoke case management approach to each woman serving an IPP sentence. The overarching goal of the strategy is to ensure that all are proactively supported to progress through their prison sentences as quickly as possible. Psychologists regularly review cases and jointly work with prison and probation colleagues to remove barriers to progression and expedite completion of interventions and services. There are, as of end December 2022, 40 women in custody serving an IPP sentence, 12 of whom have never been released.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of NHS training places for clinical psychologists.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is fully committed to attracting, training and recruiting the mental health workforce of the future, including clinical psychologists, and is taking a number of steps to achieve this. To increase the number of trained clinical psychologists available, Health Education England has supported a 99% per cent expansion in clinical psychology training commissions over the past four years. This expansion model is expected to achieve a growth of 2,520 additional practitioner psychologists in the National Health Service workforce by 2025.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people (a) applied for and (b) took up an NHS training place to train as a clinical psychologist, in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold data on applicants to clinical psychology courses.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) does publish data on students enrolled on higher education (HE) courses. The following table shows the students enrolled onto the first year of a clinical psychology course in the United Kingdom. Enrolments to clinical psychology courses are not available for previous years.
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Undergraduate | 295 | 300 | 275 |
Postgraduate | 1,415 | 1,560 | 1,780 |
All courses | 1,710 | 1,860 | 2,050 |
Source: The HESA HE student enrolments 2023