Health secretary Alan Johnson announced a new initiative to recruit 4,000 extra midwives to the NHS over the next three years.
The drive includes an attractive ‘golden hello’ packeage, includng up to ?3,000 to entice midwives back to work after a break in serivce.
The Department of Health and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) will launch a Return to Practice campaign in the summer, with incentives including free training, support with childcare and travel costs plus a grant of up to ?1,500.
Mr Johnson daid: “The number of births in England is rising. To keep pace with this increase and to improve the quality of care to mothers, we will recruit an additional 1000 midwives on our wards and in our communities by 2009, rising to around 4000 by 2012.
“Many of these extra midwives will be new to the profession, but there are also former midwives whose expertise could be brought back to the NHS given the right support.”
There are currently 24,469 midwives employed in England. Engand has seen an 11% increase in births since 2000, rising from 572,826 to 635,748 by 2006.
