Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement of 18 December 2019 that all nursing students on courses from September 2020 will receive a payment of at least £5,000 a year which they will not need to pay back, when (a) further details on that funding will be published and (b) the application process will open.

The Department published the ‘NHS financial support for health students (4^th edition) NHS Learning Support Fund’ on 29 June. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/learning-support-fund-4th-edition

The NHS Business Services Authority is administering the new maintenance grant on behalf of the Department. Students have been able to register online for an account and apply since 1 July 2020. More information is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/learning-support-fund