Asked by: Ayoub Khan (Independent - Birmingham Perry Barr)
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 help support people with asthma in Birmingham Perry Barr constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (BSol ICS) is working to enhance asthma care, which includes access to diagnostics in the community, across the city and the borough. Improved rates of diagnosis will allow early intervention and prevention, supporting patients to manage their condition more effectively at home or in the community, and preventing emergency hospital admissions.
In primary care, adults, children, and young people can access support from their general practice (GP) for diagnosis and ongoing management of the condition, treatment of mild exacerbations, and asthma annual reviews to optimise treatment and prevent exacerbations.
Adults, children, and young people have access to outpatient reviews by community respiratory specialist nurses through GP referrals to the Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. These reviews are for patients requiring specialist support, where their condition is not severe enough to require secondary care.
In December 2024, the BSol ICS’s Community Care Collaborative launched a Respiratory Same Day Emergency Care Service at Washwood Health and Wellbeing Centre. The service is in particular responding to the issue that 40% of those admitted to Birmingham Heartlands Hospital have respiratory illness. The service is for patients aged 17 years old and over from any part of Birmingham and Solihull who have chronic respiratory conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pneumonia, respiratory failure, bronchiectasis, and interstitial lung disease. Patients who access the service are then either discharged, followed-up with a GP, admitted to a virtual ward, also known as hospital at home, or referred to a community respiratory service.
For children and young people, the Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust’s Department of Respiratory Medicine and Cystic Fibrosis treats children and young people aged between zero and 18 years old with asthma, including 40 to 50 with difficult asthma, who are receiving specialised treatments.
The BSol ICS has also established a Paediatric Asthma Network which has been leading a number of workstreams focused on improving asthma education, training, post-asthma attack management, and the creation of a novel risk stratification tool to identify children with high risk of asthma attacks. The BSol ICB has also provided funding to support the creation of new asthma clinics, specialist asthma nurses, and asthma-friendly school initiatives. 75% of children who had a second review at these clinics showed significant improvement in their asthma control test, suggesting improved disease control. 100% of children who attended the clinics had a reduction in asthma-related hospital accident and emergency department visits over the subsequent six months.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many nurses have been trained in England in each of the past three years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes data on the number of students qualifying from higher education courses in the United Kingdom, and this includes information on a broad ranges of undergraduate nursing courses. The published data is not detailed enough to allow for the reliable identification of all students completing courses which specifically lead to registered nursing status.
As a proxy for the number of students completing nursing courses each year, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) publish information on the number of UK trained nurses joining their register for the first time, who are resident in England.
The following table shows the number of UK trained nurses joining the NMC register in England for the first time by financial year:
Financial year | Number of UK qualified registered nurses joining the NMC register for the first time |
2022/23 | 16,420 |
2023/24 | 18,478 |
2024/25 | 19,670 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2025 Annual Data Report.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to increase the number of specialist rheumatology nurses in the workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The training of nurses is the responsibility of the health care independent statutory regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). It has the general function of promoting high standards of education and coordinating all stages of education to ensure that nursing students and newly qualified nurses are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for professional practice.
The training curricula for postgraduate training for nurses to specialise as a specialist rheumatology nurse is set by the Royal College of Nursing, and has to meet the standards set by the NMC.
We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether training is available through the NHS for school nurses on managing allergies and administering adrenaline auto-injectors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) sets the standards for education preparation for school nurses, who are registered nurses that undertake a post-graduate Specialist Public Health Nurse qualification with an NMC-approved university. School nurses will then also undertake any mandatory training required by their employer, as appropriate to their role.
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on schools to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions, and should have policies and processes in place to ensure these can be well managed. This includes allergies. The policy should also set out how staff will be supported in carrying out their role to support pupils, including how training needs are assessed and how training is commissioned and provided. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training.
NHS England has also produced the Healthy School Child e-learning programme, which is available at the following link:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/healthy-school-child/
This programme is designed for healthcare professionals, including school nurses, working with children aged between five and 12 years old. Module 5 of the e-learning programme includes sessions on asthma, eczema, and other allergies.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of school nurses have received specialist training in (a) allergy and (b) anaphylaxis management.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is not held centrally on the number of school nurses who have received specialist training in allergy and anaphylaxis management. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) sets the standards for education preparation for school nurses, who are registered nurses that undertake a post-graduate Specialist Public Health Nurse qualification with an NMC-approved university. School nurses will then also undertake any mandatory training required by their employer, as appropriate to their role.
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on schools to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions, and should have policies and processes in place to ensure that these can be well managed, including for allergies. The policy should also set out how staff will be supported in carrying out their role to support pupils, including how training needs are assessed and how training is commissioned and provided. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training. NHS England has also produced the Health School Child e-learning programme, which is available at the following link:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/healthy-school-child/
This is designed for healthcare professionals, including school nurses, working with children aged five to 12 years old. Module 5 of the e-learning programme includes sessions on asthma, eczema, and other allergies.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
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 ensure that NHS nursing associates are (a) recognised for their work, (b) protected from role misuse and (c) supported within their defined scope of practice.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Employers across the National Health Service are best placed to identify, recognise, and reward staff for excellence in the delivery of healthcare. In October 2023, NHS England published their Staff Recognition Framework. This provides ideas and guidance for organisations to inform their own strategies and approaches to recognising the work of staff. The Staff Recognition Framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/staff-recognition-framework/
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. The NMC has published standards of proficiency for nursing associates, which set out the knowledge and skills that nursing associates need to meet in order to be considered by the NMC as capable of safe and effective nursing associate practice. Further information on the standards of proficiency is available at the following link:
In addition, the NMC’s Code sets out the professional standards that all NMC registrants must uphold in order to be registered to practise in the United Kingdom.
Nursing associates can expand their knowledge and skills with the right training and governance. This must be coupled with appropriate local governance arrangements to ensure healthcare professionals only carry out tasks that they have received the necessary training to perform.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 help improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of staff in the NHS cancer workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Recruitment to National Health Service roles is managed locally by trusts and systems. However, NHS England is taking a range of actions to support the recruitment and retention of staff in the NHS cancer workforce.
To grow the workforce, NHS England has been expanding specialty training places in key cancer professions, including histopathology, clinical radiology, and gastroenterology. Targeted national campaigns and outreach activities, for example in clinical oncology, also promote cancer career pathways, with a focus on increasing applications.
To improve retention, NHS England is investing in structured career development and education support. The Aspirant Cancer Career and Education Development programme provides a nationally agreed framework for capability, career development, and education for nurses, allied health professionals, and the support workforce working in cancer care.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many new NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors will complete training in the next 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department estimates a range of between 19,000 and 22,500 nurses trained in England joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register for the first time in the year to March 2026, based on the 23,240 acceptances to English nursing courses in the 2022 cycle, published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, as part of its undergraduate end of cycle data resources for 2024. These nurses may go on to work in the National Health Service, but also in other settings including social care or for non-NHS providers including some carrying out NHS work.
The numbers of joiners to the General Medical Council (GMC) register who are graduates of education courses in England has been increasing as medical school intakes have been expanded. We estimate between 8,000 and 8,500 doctors will join the GMC register having qualified from English universities during 2025.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential merits of introducing dental apprenticeships as a pathway to becoming a qualified dentist.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers regularly meet with Cabinet colleagues to discuss a range of issues.
Dental apprenticeships are available for roles such as dental nurses and technicians but are not available to become a qualified dentist. These apprenticeships provide skills and experience, combining work-based training with a degree.
We are determined to rebuild National Health Service dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions. A core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of introducing dental apprenticeships on shortages of dental professionals in each region.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers regularly meet with Cabinet colleagues to discuss a range of issues.
Dental apprenticeships are available for roles such as dental nurses and technicians but are not available to become a qualified dentist. These apprenticeships provide skills and experience, combining work-based training with a degree.
We are determined to rebuild National Health Service dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions. A core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.