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Written Question
Developing Countries: Midwives and Nurses
Wednesday 16th February 2022

Asked by: Baroness Cox (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will reinstate the Nursing Now programme to deliver nursing and midwifery training in developing countries.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK government is committed to efforts to strengthen the global healthcare workforce - including through nurse and midwife training in low and lower-middle income countries - as part of a wider health systems strengthening approach. This is laid out in the FCDO's recently published Health Systems Strengthening and Ending Preventable Deaths of Mothers, Babies and Children Approach Papers. We do not have current plans to reinstate funding for the Nursing Now campaign after the seismic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK economy forced the Government to take tough but necessary decisions, including reducing Official Development Assistance spending from 0.7 to 0.5% of Gross National Income.

We will continue to support efforts to strengthen national healthcare workforces through our bilateral programming and our support to large multi-country programmes such as the Global Financing Facility, the World Health Organization, and our £1.4 billion contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (2020-2024). The Global Fund invests around $1billion per year in health systems strengthening, the majority of which supports human resources for health. The FCDO has seconded a Human Resources for Health Adviser to the Global Fund to help to maximise the impact of this significant investment.


Written Question
Overseas Aid
Tuesday 18th May 2021

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget is limited to one year; for what reason the UK Partnerships for Health Systems Strengthening programme could not be delayed by a year rather than cancelled; and what assessment he has made of the benefits of a scheme which involves doctors and nurses giving their time voluntarily to support health services in developing countries.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The UK is facing the worst economic contraction in over 300 years, and a budget deficit of close to £400 billion. Given the impact of this global pandemic on the economy, the government has been forced to take tough but necessary decisions, of which one has been to close the UK Partnership for Health Systems (UK PHS) programme. The Government is committed to returning to 0.7% of GNI on ODA spend once the fiscal situation allows. This is confirmed in the Integrated Review.

The tough decision to close the UK PHS programme was made due to uncertainty around future levels of funding. Doctors and nurses who give their time voluntarily through this and previous programmes, have made a substantial contribution to achieving global health goals in developing countries. This has included support to the development of the global health workforce, and strengthening health service delivery and performance with partner countries.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Nurses
Tuesday 18th May 2021

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to progress the allocation of the £5 million commitment to developing nursing made to commemorate Florence Nightingale's bicentenary.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The government is committed to supporting nursing and midwifery development in low and low-middle income countries through our work on strengthening health systems. This includes significant investment in global health initiatives, for example our £1.4 billion contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (2020-2024). With the closure of the UK Partnerships for Health Systems, programme we will not meet the commitment to allocate £5 million to support the development of nurses and midwives.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Nurses
Tuesday 18th June 2019

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans he has to help support nursing provision in low and middle-income countries.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Health workers, including nurses, are essential to build strong health systems and achieve universal health coverage. DFID will support nursing provision through our new health partnerships programme, which includes £5 million of grants to train and upskill nurses and midwives specifically. DFID also assists countries to invest in their health workers to improve health services. For example, we have supported over 7,000 nurses and midwives in Kenya to be trained in emergency obstetric and new-born care which has led to a 10% reduction in maternal deaths.


Written Question
NHS: Migrant Workers
Tuesday 24th July 2018

Asked by: Lord Davies of Stamford (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by the Earl of Courtown on 12 June (HL Deb, col 1575), from which countries it would not be acceptable for the NHS to recruit nurses and doctors.

Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy

The United Kingdom adheres to the World Health Organization Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. The UK Government has developed a list of developing countries, based on economic status and the availability of healthcare professionals that should not be targeted for recruitment without Government-to-Government agreement.

The list is based upon the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee list of aid recipients and can be found in the attached table, due to the size of the data.

There are three important exceptions to this list. First, there is Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Philippine Governments to enable the UK to recruit registered nurses and other healthcare professionals that are regulated by appropriate professional bodies in both countries. Second, the inclusion of India on this list is in relation to four states: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. These states currently receive assistance from the Department for International Development. Finally, the Chinese Government has requested that China is removed from this list but that no recruitment should take place in small rural areas.

Specific agreements also exist for exchange programmes, or medical training initiatives, which enable health care professionals to come to the UK on a temporary basis to learn new skills before returning to their home country. For example, the Government announced such a scheme in partnership with the Jamaican Government in April this year.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Foreign Nationals
Tuesday 17th July 2018

Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)

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 recruit more GPs from overseas to the NHS.

Answered by Steve Brine

In August 2017, NHS England announced an expansion to the existing international general practitioner (GP) recruitment programme to secure at least 2,000 appropriately qualified doctors from overseas by 2020. This will build on the learning gathered through the four pilot sites.

To support increased GP recruitment to the National Health Service from overseas, NHS England have taken the following steps:

- Established an international recruitment framework, to make it easier to contract with recruitment agencies to source candidates;

- Appointed recruitment agencies to begin sourcing candidates from European Economic Area countries to work in areas of greatest need across England;

- Produced materials for recruitment agencies to use to promote the local areas being recruited to, and highlight the benefits of living and working in England;

- Developing a focussed communications and marketing strategy to attract overseas GPs to work in England;

- Contracted with companies to provide English language training to help doctors reach the level required to work in the United Kingdom; and

- Building on feedback from the pilot sites, they have also developed a tailored learning and development pathway for international GPs supportive including induction/observer placement in a practice working with an assigned clinical supervisor.

In July 2018, the Government lifted the cap on Tier 2 visas for doctors and nurses. This means there should be no longer any risk of visas being denied for international GPs because they have breached the cap.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Migrant Workers
Tuesday 17th July 2018

Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)

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 recruit more GPs from overseas to the NHS.

Answered by Steve Brine

In August 2017, NHS England announced an expansion to the existing international general practitioner (GP) recruitment programme to secure at least 2,000 appropriately qualified doctors from overseas by 2020. This will build on the learning gathered through the four pilot sites.

To support increased GP recruitment to the National Health Service from overseas, NHS England have taken the following steps:

- Established an international recruitment framework, to make it easier to contract with recruitment agencies to source candidates;

- Appointed recruitment agencies to begin sourcing candidates from European Economic Area countries to work in areas of greatest need across England;

- Produced materials for recruitment agencies to use to promote the local areas being recruited to, and highlight the benefits of living and working in England;

- Developing a focussed communications and marketing strategy to attract overseas GPs to work in England;

- Contracted with companies to provide English language training to help doctors reach the level required to work in the United Kingdom; and

- Building on feedback from the pilot sites, they have also developed a tailored learning and development pathway for international GPs supportive including induction/observer placement in a practice working with an assigned clinical supervisor.

In July 2018, the Government lifted the cap on Tier 2 visas for doctors and nurses. This means there should be no longer any risk of visas being denied for international GPs because they have breached the cap.


Written Question
NHS: Recruitment
Thursday 3rd May 2018

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

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 effect of the Government's hostile environment immigration policy on NHS recruitment.

Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Government is in no doubt of the invaluable contribution that overseas health professionals make to the National Health Service and we will continue to welcome them in future. In a global context, as demand for more staff grows internationally, the United Kingdom’s current and historical dependence on recruitment of overseas staff is neither sustainable nor right as developing countries seek to retain their own much needed health care professionals. That is why we have announced historic increases in training places for doctors and nurses in England, to increase the domestic supply of NHS staff, reduce migration to sustainable levels and to ensure an ethical role in the growing international labour market for health professionals.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Nurses
Monday 12th March 2018

Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the news story UK aid supports Nursing Now campaign to empower nurses in the world’s poorest countries, published by her Department on 27 February 2018, whether the £5 million to support the training of nurses and midwives in developing countries whether that money will come from additional funding.

Answered by Alistair Burt

To support the Nursing Now campaign, DFID will allocate £5 million of the Stronger Health Partnerships for Stronger Health Systems programme to deliver partnerships that will train nurses and midwives, including in leadership development. This new programme will start in 2019 and will support the priorities identified by countries to invest in their health workforces and strengthen their health systems.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Health Services
Monday 1st December 2014

Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect on the health services in developing countries of doctors and nurses being recruited to work in the UK instead of their own country.

Answered by Desmond Swayne

There are no UK-specific estimates of the impact of international recruitment of health workers, but the UK has signed the World Health Organisation Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel and implements it through the UK Code of Practice for international recruitment. The UK Code specifies a list of developing countries that should not be targeted for international recruitment under any circumstances.