Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

My hon. Friend is right to point out that there are different ways into nursing. Just a few weeks ago, we announced a massive expansion in apprenticeships across the NHS, and I anticipate that a significant number will be for those going into nursing. The new post of nursing associate is a vocational route into nursing via an apprenticeship. In addition, our reforms to bursaries will ensure that there is a 25% increase in funding to recipients, bringing it into line with the rest of the student cohort. That cohort has seen a considerable expansion in the number of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds as a result of the reforms that we undertook in 2011 and 2012.

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

Does the Minister accept that his Government’s decision to cut nurse training places by 3,000 a year since 2010 has led to the huge shortage of nursing staff in the NHS and an increased reliance on nurses recruited from abroad and expensive agency staff, and that that will get worse with the abolition of bursaries? Is not this a textbook example of a false economy from the Government?

[Ben Gummer]

The hon. Lady should look at the facts. March 2015 saw a record number of nurses in the NHS—319,595. We are increasing the number of nurse training places. We are able to increase them by considerably more than we could have done otherwise, as a result of the reforms to student finance that bring nurses into line with teachers and other public sector professionals.