Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (a) what steps her Department is taking to improve retention across the NHS workforce; and (b) what assessment the Department has made of measures to reduce staff turnover, sickness absence and rel
Answer
Management of staff at a local level is a matter for individual National Health Service employers. The Department will address wider issues around staff recruitment, retention, and welfare as part of our upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan.
Verdict: AMBER (30/100)
The reply partly addresses the question. It points to the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan as the way retention will be tackled, but it gives no current action and says local management is a matter for employers. On staff turnover and sickness absence, it speaks only in general terms about welfare, retention and recruitment, without stating the department's assessment or any measures. Because most of the answer is future-oriented or vague, the person who asked would probably need to ask again for specifics.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the department is doing about improving retention across the NHS workforce. | Partially Addressed | Direct | The reply names a concrete vehicle, the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan, for addressing retention, but it gives no current action and only promises future work. The other statement, that local management is for employers, deflects the question rather than answering it. |
| What the department's assessment or view is of measures to reduce staff turnover, sickness absence and related matters (the source question is truncated after "rel"). | Partially Addressed | Hedged | The reply mentions welfare, retention and recruitment in general terms but says nothing about the department's assessment of staff turnover or sickness absence measures, and offers no evidence or current position on them. |