NHS Bursary

Debate between Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting

Monday 11th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I am delighted that, thanks to the response of more than 150,000 people, we are having this important and timely debate, which will allow me to raise some of the issues outstanding from the Adjournment debate that I secured before Christmas and address those that the Government have not yet addressed.

It is encouraging to see three members of the shadow Cabinet here at this debate: the shadow Health Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander); the shadow Minister for mental health, my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger); and the shadow Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), who has shown an interest during the course of these proceedings. This weekend, the shadow Health Secretary and I, along with other right hon. and hon. Members, joined thousands of students, nurses and supporters marching through the streets of London to raise their concerns about the implications of the Government’s decision. A statement of support from the Leader of the Opposition, my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), was well received by all in attendance.

I begin by emphasising that, often as shorthand, we have been discussing the implications of the policy changes for student nurses and midwives, but of course the changes extend to a range of allied health professionals, as I said in my Adjournment debate. It is important not to lose sight of that when discussing the Government’s proposed approach.

To recap the Adjournment debate, we are discussing the biggest shake-up in the funding of nursing, midwifery and allied health subjects since the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968. It would mean the end of the non-means-tested grant of up to £1,000, the end of the means-tested NHS bursary of up to £3,191 and the imposition of tuition fees of £9,000 a year, which would burden nurses, midwives and other allied health professionals at the start of their career with huge debts of at least £51,600. Thanks to the repayment threshold, now shamefully frozen at £21,000, they will begin to pay back those debts immediately on starting their career and will face an average pay cut of £900.

Given that such professionals are required to work at least 2,300 more hours across the course of their degree, it is an absolute disgrace that we are seeking to balance the books on the backs of the front-line staff who form the backbone of our NHS. No wonder so many NHS professionals across the board are angered by the Government’s approach. It seems to be a trend under this Government. We are seeing it not just in the treatment of nurses, midwives and allied health professionals but in the Government’s intransigent approach to the junior doctors dispute, in which people could go out on industrial action, not out of choice but out of apparent necessity.

To follow on from the Adjournment debate, a number of questions are still outstanding. My concerns about the Government’s approach involve both the policy content and the process that they are choosing to follow. I asked the Minister during the Adjournment debate whether he could confirm that the Government would consult on the principle of policy changes, not merely their implementation. He told the House that

“we will not consult on the principle, because that has been decided”.—[Official Report, 14 December 2015; Vol. 603, c. 1379.]

Yet, as I will go on to outline, many fundamental aspects of the policy and the detail underpinning it have not yet even been considered by the Government. I am surprised that Ministers are confident embarking on such a radical course of action without having thought through the consequences properly. I have asked the Minister what analysis the Government have conducted of students receiving NHS bursaries for tuition and maintenance costs, but have received no answer. I do not believe that the analysis has yet been conducted. I am sure that it is under way, because he has confirmed that the Government will publish an impact assessment alongside the consultation, which he expects to start next month, but was that impact assessment conducted before the Government embarked on this approach, or is the Chancellor just shooting in the dark to balance his books?

[Louise Haigh (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab)]

Is my hon. Friend aware of research by the trade union Unison showing that nine out of 10 student nurses surveyed said that they would not have gone into training if the new proposals had been in place? Given that this month London issued a critical alert after its vacancy rate jumped 26% to 10,000, should the impact assessment not cover the impact on the recruitment and retention of nurses in our system?

[Wes Streeting]

Those statistics concern me greatly. I should probably have said at the outset of this debate that I am a member and supporter of Unison. I also draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. For completeness, I should also say that I am a former president of the National Union of Students and have a long-standing interest in such issues.

It concerns me that there might be a detrimental impact on recruitment, particularly given that my local NHS trust had to fly nurses over from Portugal to fill vacancies. I have no problem with those Portuguese nurses coming over to help plug the gap, but we have plenty of home-grown talent in the form of nurses who would welcome such a job opportunity. That is felt strongly by local people in my area.