Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support he is providing to NHS trusts to mitigate the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on their ability to use mapped career pathways of apprenticeships to improve social mobility.

Apprenticeships offer a complete pathway from entry-level through to postgraduate level, giving people of all backgrounds the opportunity to pursue a career in the health and social care sector. We are committed to minimising disruption to nurses’ training and career progression, while supporting the NHS to deal with the challenges of COVID-19, and we have introduced a broad range of flexibilities to help support this.

Nursing apprentices who have completed their programme and passed through the apprenticeship gateway will be regarded to have met the end-point assessment requirements and achieved their apprenticeship. The apprentice will then have the opportunity to continue along the nursing apprenticeship pathway. We have also issued guidance on how critical workers such as nurses may be able to continue off-the-job training when redeployed to a new role.

We continue to engage regularly with NHS stakeholders, including Health Education England and NHS Employers, to make sure the NHS is fully supported to recruit the apprentices it needs to deliver high-quality care.