AQW 25885/22-27

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 09/04/2025
Answered On Date: 28/04/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health (i) for his Department’s assessment of the factors that have contributed to the increased reliance on an international workforce by Health and Social Care Trusts in recent years; and (ii) to detail any measures being taken to address domestic workforce shortages that have led to such reliance.

Answer:

International recruitment is a key avenue in addressing our workforce resource issues and ensuring that the health & social care service can deliver the safe and effective service for patients. The international recruits who arrive to work here across our HSC system provide an immensely valuable contribution to the delivery of health and social care services, let alone to our communities.

My Department’s vision for the health and social care workforce is outlined in the Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy 2026: Delivering for our People. The Strategy was published in May 2018 following detailed engagement with stakeholders from across the health and social care system with the aim of ‘meeting our workforce needs and the needs of our workforce’.

The multi-faceted approach to workforce development outlined in the Strategy includes effective workforce planning, commissioning appropriate levels of pre- and post-registration training, better attraction and recruitment of staff, developing alternative training pathways into a career in health and social care such as apprenticeships, reducing agency dependency, developing initiatives to improve staff retention and provision of effective staff health and wellbeing services.

This strategic approach to workforce development has supported a 17.2% increase in whole time equivalent staff directly employed across the HSC since the Strategy was published. This amounts to 9,786 additional whole time equivalent staff across the HSC, including 989 (+23.6%) more medical and dental staff, 2,891 (+19.1%) more registered nurses and midwives and 1,928 (+23.7%) more professional and technical staff.