NHS: Nurse Retention

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 17th January 2018 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to stem the flow of nurses leaving the NHS.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of which I have given private notice.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord O’Shaughnessy) (Con)]

My Lords, nursing numbers have increased since 2010, including 11,700 more nurses on hospital wards. To retain more of these hard-working staff and to build a workforce fit for the future, the Government are increasing the number of nurse training places by 25%, supporting new flexible working arrangements in the NHS and delivering a new homes for nurses programme.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, even for the Minister, that is remarkably complacent. The overall number of nurses may be rising, but it has nowhere kept pace with the increasing number of patients. For years, the Government have failed to get new recruits coming through, while failed policy decisions such as the NHS pay cap and the ending of the NHS bursary have contributed to the growing crisis. Last year, 33,000 nurses left the NHS. More than half of those who walked away were under 40, and the number of leavers outnumbered joiners by 3,000. There are now more than 100,000 vacant posts in the NHS. Does the Minister accept the need to lift the pay cap, fund proper rises for nurses, restore bursaries and support this precious profession, which has been so unappreciated by this Government?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

The noble Lord is quite wrong to say that it is an unappreciated profession; nurses are deeply appreciated by everybody in this country, and that includes members of the Government.

Of course we want to reduce the number of nurses leaving the profession. It is important to point out that the number is down on two years ago, which was the peak in both number and proportion, and that the number of nurses has risen over that period. The noble Lord mentioned the pay cap. He will know, I hope, that in the Budget the Chancellor announced that he would be funding pay increases above the pay cap for nurses and other professionals on the Agenda for Change contracts, which is extremely welcome. We know that pay matters.

The noble Lord is right to focus on under-40s; that was an area that concerned me. The programme whereby we are promising to deliver 3,000 social homes for nurses is an important part of retaining staff, because we know how important housing costs are, particularly in the south of England.

Finally, we have been around the issue of bursaries a number of times, and there is no evidence that their introduction will make a long-term impact on our ability to recruit the nurses we need. Indeed, we are increasing the number of nurse training places from next year by a further 5,000.