Recommendation 3

The Government’s current target of recruiting 50,000 NHS nurses is not having any meaningful impact on the true scale of nursing shortages. The Government must introduce a new bursary scheme comprising full coverage of tuition fees, a non-means- tested grant of at least £1,000, and a means-tested bursary. In addition, nursing and midwifery students who take up this bursary should be guaranteed, where possible, at least 3 years of work in the NHS Trust in which they trained, to eliminate the need for them to seek agency work after graduation.