Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of nursing students in England who have had the completion of their unversity education delayed due to covid-19; and what the average length is of that delay.

Data collected by Health Education England (HEE) from universities, indicated that as a result of COVID-19, up to 2,092 nursing students had extended their education and were not able to complete their programme by July 2020 as anticipated. The average delay to completion of training was estimated at seven weeks.

HEE will continue to work with system partners to ensure any impact on training and placements is minimised, including supporting universities to rearrange interrupted clinical placements and finding alternatives such as using simulation where that is appropriate. In cases where extensions to students’ courses are unavoidable, the Government will continue to ensure that appropriate financial support is made available to affected students.