Nursing: Recruitment

Baroness Watkins of Tavistock Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

First, we are actually exceeding the number of leavers. There were 36,000 people who left last year and 45,000 who joined—a net increase of 9,000. That is not to say that we do not want to retain people. I absolutely accept the premise that we do, which is why we have a retention programme in place to ensure that we are able to do so. We also have a restart programme to help people who have left to get back into nursing in a quick and easy way. Overall, the main point here is that the number of joiners is exceeding the number of leavers. We are more than catching the number up; we are exceeding it.

[Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a nurse and the co-editor of the WHO report, State of the World’s Nursing. It is true that we have 9,000 additional nurses, but of the 48,000 who in the last year joined the register for the whole UK—for the four countries, not just England—more than half had trained overseas. Those nurses are very welcome here, but it illustrates that we are not encouraging people who wish to go into nursing to do so, beyond the 72,000 the Minister referred to. That is very much to do with student finance and the lack of apprenticeship opportunities for older people who want to go into the profession. Can the Minister look into increasing those opportunities?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Indeed, and towards that aim we have set up the nursing associate role, which is a stepping-stone to allow people to ease in and have qualifications on the way to becoming a fully trained nurse. The overall point I make, as before, is that by putting in a £5,000-a-year grant for student nurses, we are recruiting the numbers. I reiterate that 72,000 is a big pipeline but also that it is an uncapped pipeline. The more we can attract, the merrier—whether domestically or, as in the fine tradition of the NHS, from overseas sources.