10-year plan offers ‘modest changes’ to nurse education

Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting has announced reforms to nurse education as part of the 10 Year Health Plan, including faster payment of expenses, more training in the community and cutting the amount of time between students graduating and starting work ‘on the wards’.

According to the latest UCAS figures, the number of students applying to study nursing is at a record low since UCAS began publishing data in its current format in 2019. Since 2021, the number of applications has collapsed by 35% in England and by 34% across the UK.

RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: ‘These modest changes may improve the experience for current nursing students but more is needed to boost student and nurse staffing levels in the face of the current crisis.

‘The new measures are recognition that nurse education needs reform, but ministers need to go further. Even after today, students will still be unable to make ends meet during their studies due to shockingly low levels of financial support, whilst at the end of their course they face crushing debt, poor pay and an entire career weighted to the bottom of the NHS pay scale. It is little wonder the numbers applying to study nursing have collapsed.

‘To solve the workforce crisis, they need to understand that as well as broadening the education students receive, they must boost the numbers joining in the first place. This won’t happen without overhauling nurse education, including stronger financial support for those who commit to working in the NHS and social care. They must also ensure there are jobs for all graduates to go into at a time when staffing levels are dangerously low across the health service.’