Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan and NHS Planning Guidance commitments for 2019-20, what progress his Department has made against the commitment to continue to invest in the growth of nursing apprenticeships; and if he will make a statement.

The Department is fully committed to increasing the number of nursing apprenticeships. In support of this, we have developed a complete apprentice pathway from entry level Healthcare Support Worker to Nursing Associate to Nurse and onto postgraduate advanced clinical practice in nursing. This will support people from all backgrounds to enter a nursing career in the National Health Service.

Health Education England (HEE) is leading a national Nursing Associate programme with a commitment for up to 7,500 Nursing Associates to enter training in 2019. This expansion builds on HEE’s Nursing Associate programme which has already seen thousands start training in 2017 and 2018.

There are currently 583 Nurse Degree Apprentices on programme in the current academic year, (Department for Education data - 1 August 2018 - January 2019, published March 2019). Data is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships