Recommendation 5

The removal of the NHS bursary in 2017 signally failed to achieve the Department’s ambition to increase nursing student numbers. From 2017, the Department changed the funding arrangements for nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students. It removed the NHS bursary and payment of tuition fees for students and moved them onto student loan arrangements. The Department hoped to increase the number of places on these courses by 10,000 by 2020, but accepts that the new policy has failed to meet all its objectives. While the numbers of people accepting a place on a nursing degree course have increased since 2017, only 430 (2%) more people accepted a place in 2019 compared with 2016. The number of applicants is also still well below pre-2017 levels, although the latest data show a 15% increase in domestic applicants for nursing degrees from 2019 to 2020. The policy change also impacted some students and regions more than others: for example, there were large falls in student numbers on learning disability nursing degrees. In December 2019, the government announced the introduction of a new maintenance grant for nursing students from September 2020. Recommendation: The Department, NHSE&I and HEE should write to the Committee in October 2020 setting out how they expect the new maintenance loan to increase nursing student numbers overall and for different types of student, NHS nursing workforce 7 nursing specialisms and regions. This should also set out how the loan might affect drop-out during courses.