Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many student nurses have been included in the NHS mental health nurse headcount in each month since May 2015.
Student nurses not yet registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council are not included in the National Health Service mental health nurse headcount data.
These students will not, as part of their programme of training, be contracted by any person or body to provide nursing care.
A small minority of post-registration students studying part-time conversion or postgraduate courses will be included in the headcounts.