Nurses

(asked on 5th September 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to address nurse shortages and pay gaps between English regions.


Answered by
Philip Dunne Portrait
Philip Dunne
This question was answered on 12th September 2017

The Government is undertaking a range of measures to ensure sufficient nursing workforce supply:

On 1 August 2017 the Government changed the funding system for pre-registration nurse training from National Health Service-funded tuition and bursaries to the standard student support system. This change means we have moved away from centrally imposed number controls and financial limitations and therefore the artificial cap has been removed. We expect that these reforms will be enable universities to offer up to an additional 10,000 training places by 2020, for nurses, midwives and allied health profession students.

Developing new routes into nursing is a priority for the Department. In November 2016 the new Nursing Associate role and the Nursing Degree Apprenticeship was announced. Once established, up to 1,000 apprentice nurses could join the NHS each year. In addition the Department is working with its arm’s length bodies to ensure that the NHS retains more of its existing workforce and invests in the Return to Nursing Practice Programme.

Agenda for Change - the national pay system under which nurses are paid - includes mechanisms that enable trusts to target pay to address local recruitment and retention issues. In making recommendations to the Government on pay for nurses and other staff covered by Agenda for Change, the independent NHS Pay Review Body considers evidence from a wide range of stakeholders including trades unions, NHS Employers, NHS Providers, NHS England, NHS Improvement, Health Education England and others, not just from the Government. In its March 2017 report the NHS Pay Review Body noted that it had received no evidence from any party, including trades unions, for making any changes to the existing mechanisms; and that there was no support from any party for targeting the pay award for 2017/18.

Reticulating Splines