PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Midwives: Labour Turnover and Recruitment (4 December 2023)

NHS England is already taking actions to grow and train the midwifery workforce. Actions are underway to continue funding the shortened midwifery course for registered nurses in 2023/24 and 2024/25. This provides registered nurses with a two-year programme to become registered midwives and will lead to the registration of over 1,000 more midwives by 2026.

These actions are on top of progress already made over recent years, including a 13% planned increase in the number of midwives in training by 2024/25 compared to 2021/22.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years, including the ambition to increase the number of nursing and midwifery training places to around 58,000 by 2031/32.

The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. The following table sets out the planned intake of midwifery students over the course of the plan:

* Current intake is based on the Student Data Collection which includes undergraduate, postgraduate and apprentices

** The planned level of increase sits within a modelled range, where the level required is dependent on productivity and retention levels alongside other factors.