Members of the House of Lords defeated the government 171 to 119 to require the regular publication of independently verified health and care workforce projections (amendment 80 to Clause 35 of the Health and Care Bill. MPs may seek to overturn this decision when the Health and Care Bill goes back to the House of Commons.
In response, Dr Camilla Kingdon, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said:
We are extremely pleased that the House of Lords has voted for the amendment tabled by Baroness Cumberlege, showing they recognise the importance of the NHS workforce to deliver high quality care.
There is currently little to no public data on how many health and care staff the country needs, but it is absolutely clear that our NHS staff, including paediatricians, are overstretched, overburdened and we cannot continue as we are. In order to genuinely plan well for the future, we need regular, independent, and public workforce projection data in order that we can make accurate assessments of need going forward.
The House of Lords has voted for this rational approach to workforce planning. We know the pandemic has had a huge impact on children and demand for services will only continue to increase. Recovering from the pandemic will take an extraordinary effort and we now strongly urge the MPs to vote for the amendment, when it returns to them shortly, to support the child health workforce into the future.