Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the removal of the nursing bursary on the number of people entering mental health nurse training in the last 12 months; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of that removal in the next five years.

Data for mental health nursing places for 2017/18 academic year which commenced in September are not currently available.

As of 15 September, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data¹ the number of applicants who have confirmed places to study pre-registration nursing and midwifery in England from August 2017 is 21,340. This UCAS data includes mental health nursing but data for each individual branch of nursing is not currently available. This is similar to the numbers at the same stage in 2014 and 2015.

In order to increase the future supply of registered nurses, including mental health nurses, additional clinical placement funding was announced by the Department in August and October 2017. This enables around 5,000 more nursing students to enter training each year to 2020/21, representing a 25% increase over the number of nursing students in 2016/17. Going forward, Health Education England will monitor the number of nurse and allied health professionals applications to undergraduate courses to ensure sufficient supply of the future National Health Service workforce.

Note:

¹https://www.ucas.com/file/125701/download?token=ug8692Qp