Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in Downing Street setting out a 15-year plan to recruit 300,000 more NHS staff in England
He says the NHS will train more doctors and nurses through apprenticeships, and double the number of medical training places by 2031
The NHS will also improve conditions for staff to improve retention, he says
However, the plan does not touch on pay, a key issue in the recent NHS strikes
Asked about this, Sunak says that "everyone would like to get paid more... but I think everyone also recognises the economic context that we're in"
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, says this is a "once in a generation opportunity" to improve patient care
You can watch the news conference by pressing play at the top of the page
Moving on to questions from the media, the BBC’s Hugh Pym tells the PM that work on this plan was underway early last year, so why it has taken so long and has valuable time been lost?
Sunak says the NHS plans are “historic” and that it was important “we got it right”.
“Taking time to get it right it is the correct course of action,” he says.
Prof Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, says it takes a whole team - including nurses, physios, porters and cleaners - to provide care for patients.
He continues the growing workforce means they will have time to give the standard of care they want to provide and have been trained to provide.
He says he "truly believes" it is a landmark day for the NHS ahead of its 75th anniversary.
Image source, Downing StreetPritchard says demand for health workers is increasing, and will continue increasing across the world.
"Doing nothing is not an option," she says, adding that action is being taken.
She says this is the "biggest workforce expansion" in the history of the NHS, and that it will draw on the widest possible pool.
Retention of staff is also crucial to the plans, she adds.
We're now hearing from Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the NHS.
She thanks the prime minister and chancellor for backing the plan, saying this is a "once in a generation opportunity" to improve patient care by putting staffing on a sustainable footing.
"The NHS can do nothing without its staff," Pritchard says.
She explains that recruitment is only part of the answer, and retention is just as important.
"Train, retain and reform" are the three principles of Sunak's plans for the NHS over the upcoming years.
You can watch it live by pressing the play button at the top of our page.
Stick with us as we continue bringing you the latest lines of analysis.
Sunak speaks of the opportunities provided by new technologies like AI, such as virtual wards allowing patients to recover at home, and allowing the NHS to provide a better service at a lower cost.
He says new roles like nurse associates and physician associates will be expanded, so the most qualified staff can focus on the most complex needs.
And he says apprenticeships will be expanded, so that a fifth of all training will be through degree apprenticeships, meaning staff come from a much wider range of backgrounds.
Sunak adds that his NHS plan aims to bring in 300,000 more nurses, doctors and other health workers into the NHS over the coming years.
He hopes the plans, along with reforms to pension schemes, could see up to 130,000 staff stay in the NHS longer.
He says this will give staff more flexibility, as well as control in their professional development.
Image source, Downing StreetRishi Sunak continues saying the workforce plan's three main principles are train, retain and reform.
On training, he says he wants to double medical places by 2031, and increase the number of nurses and midwifes by 24,000.
He explained it will reduce spending on agency staff by £10bn and cut international recruitment to one in 10.
Sunak says he's announcing the most ambitious transformation of NHS staffing in its history.
The government is close to meeting its promise to recruit 50,000 more nurses, and is cutting waiting lists across England, he says.
But unless we act now, the challenges we face will only get worse, he adds.
This workforce expansion will ease pressures today, but also in the long term, Sunak says.
James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent
Even with a dramatic increase in training NHS staff within the UK (alongside goals of persuading more current staff to stick with the NHS) - there will still be a dependence on recruiting from overseas.
Around 25% of staff are currently recruited from abroad.
If everything goes to plan, then around 10% of staff will come from abroad in 15 year's time.
Sunak says NHS workers have told him they need more staff, more doctors and nurses, to ease pressure.
"We need reform," Sunak says, as he explains that past governments have avoided challenges for decades.
"It just isn't right that we don't train enough people here at home," the prime minister says.
By prioritising the NHS, Sunak says tough decisions will have to be made as there'll be other things that we cannot afford.
Image source, Downing StreetRishi Sunak opens by praising the NHS, saying the NHS is there for you whenever you need it.
He says people have sacrificed so much for so many in order to protect the country's health.
He adds that challenges have changed for the NHS, including an ageing population. He says this it putting pressure on the health service.
We're about to hear from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he unveils a "historic" 15-year plan for the NHS workforce.
You can watch the press conference live by pressing the play button at the top of this page.
Stick with us as we bring you the latest on the government's announcement from Downing Street.
James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent
Without doubt this is an ambitous plan.
But it is one thing to be ambitious and another thing entirely to actually deliver.
You will likely hear the mantra of "train, retain, reform".
But who will do the training when current staff are already over stretched?
How do you shift the culture of the NHS from one that lost 40,000 nurses, external in a year to an organisation people want to stick with?
There is a clear commitment to make this happen - to the tune of £2.4bn - in the next five years.
But hopefully we'll get more detail when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard and NHS England medical director Stephen Powis speak shortly.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge this morning, where he told reporters new roles in the NHS will be "trained properly and they'll be regulated properly".
Sunak said a modern workforce is about adapting to people's health needs.
"We should be modernising the NHS so it's fit for the future," he added.
The prime minister said new roles like physician associates have been used in America for years and other countries as well.
"It's something that people have talked about for a long time but we're going to do."
Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent
There are challenges making sure the expansion of training places are successful. The first one is making sure there are enough people interested in pursuing a career in health care.
That is less of a problem for doctors - medical degrees are heavily over-subscribed.
But the number of applications for nursing degrees is falling - with universities saying the cost of living crisis is putting people off.
However, perhaps the biggest challenge of all is ensuring existing staff are retained - nurses are leaving the NHS almost as quickly as new ones are joining.
There has been very little detail so far about how this will be addressed - and of course pay is not part of this plan and that is a key factor in keeping staff.
Pay awards going forward will be determined by two things - the size of the NHS budget and what is happening with inflation.
It is why the £2.4bn committed to boost training in this plan over the next five years is being welcomed, but on its own will not determine its success.
Currently, half of new doctors and nurses have to be recruited from abroad as the UK supply route has struggled to keep up with demand.
One out of every 10 posts remain unfilled – more than 10,000 vacancies.
And without action, this could rise to 360,000 by 2037, modelling for the plan suggests.
Read more here.
James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent
The full 151-page NHS Workforce plan has just been published by NHS England, external.
It's going to take a while to digest, but the scale of the challenge is quickly laid bare.
Our rapidly ageing population will, it estimates, mean a 55% increase in people over the age of 85 by 2037.
This will pile pressure on the NHS in the future.
Failing to prepare would leave the NHS short of between 260,000 and 360,000 staff by 2037, it says.
As of October 2022, there were 1.2 million full-time staff working for the NHS in England, a 2.5% increase from a year earlier.
However, there are still significant gaps in job vacancies.
In July last year, a report by MPs found that England was short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives, calling it the worst workforce crisis in NHS history.
On top of this, staff sickness in the NHS in England has also reached record levels, with figures from 2022 showing an absence rate – the proportion of days lost – of 5.6%, meaning it lost the equivalent of nearly 75,000 staff to illness.
Image source, PA MediaThe targets to boost the NHS workforce in England for 2031 include:
The government also hopes that over the next five years, the proportion of NHS staff - including physios, podiatrists and maternity staff - trained through apprenticeships will double, to one out of every six.
Next year, an apprenticeship for doctors will launch with a few hundred places.
Retention is also a major issue within the NHS – last year, more than 40,000 nurses left – and the plans also include more flexible-working options and career development to provide clear routes to senior jobs.