Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Rejected
Paragraph: 132
Review student clinical placement tariff setting for transparency and equitable rates.
Recommendation
The Department of Health and Social Care must commit to reviewing the process by which student clinical placement tariffs are set to establish why there is such a large difference between medical and non-medical clinical student tariffs. This review should be completed with the goal of understanding how tariff money is spent and establishing a transparent evidence base on which to inform decisions about how tariff rates will be set and how tariff money will be spent in the future.
Government Response Summary
The government does not agree to review the process by which student clinical placement tariffs are set, and instead focuses on its efforts to deliver 50,000 more nurses through investment and diversification of the training pipeline.
Paragraph Reference:
132
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
We do not agree with this recommendation. We have committed to deliver 50,000 more nurses in our NHS by the end of this Parliament. We will achieve this through a combination of investing in and diversifying our training pipeline, recruiting, and retaining more nurses in the NHS. The Nurse 50K (N50K) programme is monitored against Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) nurses and nurses in GP practices. The programme represents the most rapid growth in HCHS and GP practice nursing numbers in recent times (2009 onwards). The growth rate seen during the N50K programme is the highest-level annual growth in recorded (NHS Digital) data. Since September 2020, all eligible nursing, midwifery and allied health profession students have received a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year. Students with child dependants can access a further £2,000 per academic year. A further £1,000 per year of non-repayable funding is also available for studying certain courses—for example, mental health nursing and learning disabilities nursing. Students also received support with travel and accommodation costs and have had access to an extreme financial hardship fund. This is a non-repayable and non-means tested support package that enables healthcare students to focus on their studies and placements and helps alleviate financial pressures students might be facing. This is in addition to maintenance and tuition fee loans provided by the Student Loans Company, whose loan repayments are made only when graduates earn above a certain threshold and any outstanding debt is written off after 30 years with no detriment to the borrower. University and College Admissions Services (UCAS) end of cycle data shows for the third consecutive year, over 26,000 acceptances to undergraduate Nursing and Midwifery programmes in England. There were 3,700 more acceptances in 2022 than in 2019—a 16% increase. This shows the continued appeal for people to enter the nursing profession. We are growing apprenticeship opportunities from entry level to postgraduate advanced clinical practice. A person can join the NHS as an entry level healthcare assistant apprentice with a view to eventually qualifying as a registered nurse. Apprentices are treated as employees and therefore receive a salary throughout their period of learning. As apprentices are already employed this also allows for a smooth transition into the NHS