Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will make it its policy to reinstate nurse bursaries.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Government has no plans to reinstate the bursaries for nursing degrees and is committed to increasing uptake of the additional places these reforms have made available.
The intention of the funding reforms was to unlock the cap which constrained the number of pre-registration nursing training places, and to allow more students to gain access to nurse degree training courses, creating a sustainable model for universities and securing the future supply of homegrown nurses to the National Health Service. In support of the reforms, we announced additional clinical placement funding to make available 5,000 more nurse training places each year from September 2018 and 3,000 more midwifery training places over the next four years.
Students on the loans system are at least 25% better off than they were under the previous bursary system. In recognition of the additional costs that the healthcare students incur in order to attend the mandatory clinical placement, the Government introduced the Learning Support Fund, a £1,000 per student, per year for child dependent allowance, reimbursement of all travel costs above their usual daily travel and up to £3,000 per year for exceptional hardship. These payments are in addition to the allowances on the student loans system.
On 7 February, the University and College Admissions Service published full-time undergraduate nursing and midwifery applications made by the 15 January deadline. This data showed a 4.5% increase in applicants to undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses at English providers. We are working with Health Education England and the university sector to ensure students continue to apply for these courses this year and in future years.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that social care receives a real terms increase in funding in the forthcoming comprehensive spending review.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Social care funding for future years will be settled in the spending review, where the overall approach to funding local government will be considered.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
‘To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many subject access requests have been made to GP surgeries since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Answered by Steve Brine
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Departments policies of the conclusion of the Office for Budget Responsibility's Fiscal Sustainability Report that tax rises or budget cuts are necessary to deliver the proposed funding increases for the NHS.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Prime Minister has announced that the National Health Service budget will grow by over £20 billion a year in real terms by 2023-24. It is now up to NHS leaders to produce a new ten-year plan, led by clinicians, professionals and supported by local health and care systems across the country. The final settlement will be confirmed at a future fiscal event, subject to a plan that delivers the efficiency, productivity, and performance improvements necessary to address the long-term cost pressures highlighted by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
As the Prime Minister set out, some of this funding will be paid for by us no longer having to send annual membership subscriptions to the European Union after we have left. The commitment the Government is making goes beyond this, and so the Prime Minister has been clear that taxpayers will have to make a greater contribution, in a fair and balanced way. The Government will listen to views about how we do this and the Chancellor will set out the details in due course.