Health Professions: Training

(asked on 20th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to reinstate bursaries for UK nursing, midwifery and medical students to ensure an adequate supply of qualified staff in the NHS; what funding schemes he plans to make available to recruit and train midwifery, nursing and medical students; and what steps he is taking to retain UK-trained medical health professionals in the NHS.


Answered by
Stephen Hammond Portrait
Stephen Hammond
This question was answered on 27th June 2019

The Government has no plans to reinstate bursaries for pre-registration nursing and midwifery degree students. The tuition fee model means universities can offer more places removing the cap that was in place under the previous centrally funded system. Eligible pre-registration nursing and midwifery students can now receive more funding than under the National Health Service bursary system through tuition fee loans and living cost support from the Student Loans Company.

To support pre-registration nursing and midwifery students whilst attending the clinical placement element of their courses, the Government introduced a Learning Support Fund. Eligible students can apply for annual payments of £1,000 for child dependants allowance, reimbursement of all clinical placement travel costs above their usual daily travel and exceptional hardship payments of up to £3,000.

Eligible undergraduate medical students can access Student Loans Company tuition fee and living cost support for the first four years of their degree. Students on these courses will continue to have access to NHS bursaries for years five and six of their courses.

The interim People Plan published on 3 June 2019 sets out some of the steps needed to ensure the NHS have the staff they need to deliver high quality care, including growing our nursing workforce by 40,000 in the next five years.

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