Midwives: Recruitment

Miss McIntosh
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many midwives were (a) trained and (b) recruited in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

Ms Rosie Winterton
The table shows the number of students who entered training to be a midwife in each of the last three years. The Department does not collect centrally information on how many of these found employment as a midwife.

On 3 April 2007, the Department published “Maternity matters: choice, access and continuity of care in a safe service” highlighting the Government’s commitment to developing and enhancing national health service maternity services and the role of the work force, including midwives, in improving maternity services.

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|                                   |2003-04|2004-05|2005-06|
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|Degree                             |753    |895    |1,042  |
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|Diploma                            |716    |744    |517    |
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|Other                              |757    |735    |661    |
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|Total                              |2,226  |2,374  |2,220  |
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|Source:Quarterly Monitoring Returns|       |       |       |
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