Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing non-academic routes for people to train as nurses.

We have a complete apprentice pathway for nursing, from entry level to postgraduate advanced clinical practice. NHS England is expanding routes into healthcare professions through apprenticeships.

Our 10-Year Health Plan to reform the National Health Service will establish how to train and provide the staff the NHS needs, including nurses, through all training routes, to care for patients across our communities. A refreshed NHS Long Term Workforce Plan due for publication in summer 2025 will deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, ensuring the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to give the care patients need when they need it.