Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing payments to student nurses conducting shifts on covid-19 hospital wards.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) announced on 14 January 2021, that it was reintroducing the emergency education standards, to enable final year nursing students to opt into paid placements to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, dependent on local National Health Service need.

Student nurses opting into paid placements will be paid a salary and will receive an automatic NHS pension entitlement at the appropriate band. Time spent on paid placements can count towards students’ requirements to complete a specified number of training hours in order to successfully complete their degree.

Students may also volunteer or undertake paid ‘bank’ work within a health or care setting while maintaining their academic study if they wish to do so. In line with current guidelines, volunteering or paid work on the ‘bank’ will not be counted towards NMC required practice hours and assessed experience.