Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the cost of training a student midwife is paid by (a) the student, (b) the public purse and (c) other sources; and what the cost to the public purse was for training student midwives in each of the last five years.

Student loan outlay and Office for Students Strategic Priorities Grant data is not collected by the Department of Health and Social Care, and is the responsibility of the Department for Education and the Office for Students. NHS England supports the provision of clinical placements for student midwives, through the Education and Training Tariff, which is paid to placement providers. The following table shows the tariff provided for midwifery students in each of the last five years:

From 2017 all eligible midwifery students have received non-repayable supplementary funding support through the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF), which since 2020 has included a non-repayable training grant of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available to students for childcare, dual accommodation costs, and travel. Prior to 2017, healthcare education funding for midwifery students was centrally funded by the Government. This included payment of tuition fees and an NHS Bursary. The following table shows all support paid to students undertaking education and training which would enable them to register as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, in each of the last five years: