Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, prior to student nurses taking paid placements in the NHS as part of the recruitment measures to address the covid-19 outbreak what information was provided on the terms and conditions of those placements; and what end date was included in that information.

We are extremely grateful to all student nurses who have supported the COVID-19 response, by opting into a paid placement for their time in practice at the frontline during the pandemic.

NHS England has been funding the support to trusts where the contracts are held and Health Education England (HEE) has been brokering appropriate placements between the university and trust.

HEE published ‘Student Support Guidance during the COVID-19 Outbreak’ for nursing and midwifery students in March 2020. It advised students undertaking a placement that they would agree the exact nature of their role with the organisation in which they would be working and have a contract that incorporated the terms of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, plus any local agreements in place in the organisation to which they were deployed. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.hee.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Student%20support%20guide%20master%20.pdf