Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to ensure all frontline NHS staff are trained in suicide prevention; and whether such training will be compulsory.

Ben Gummer

It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. It is the responsibility of employers to ensure staff receive appropriate training to deliver high quality healthcare. This includes training in suicide prevention. There are no plans to make it compulsory.