Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has plans to pay student nurses for the hours they have worked through their student placements during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government worked with the National Health Service to ensure that all nursing students who opted in to paid placements during the COVID-19 pandemic were paid a salary and received automatic NHS pension entitlement at the appropriate band.

Nursing students not on paid placements continued with their academic learning and clinical placements wherever possible. Health Education England worked with health and education providers to minimise disruption to education. Clinical placements allow students to acquire the necessary skills and experience under supervision, to meet education outcomes. Students are not usually paid for their clinical placements. Paid placements were introduced temporarily as part of the Government’s emergency response to the pandemic.