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Written Question
Nurses: Training
Friday 15th December 2023

Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of full time equivalent general nurses become full time equivalent specialist nurses after accreditation.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information on the number and proportion of nurses who become specialist nurses after accreditation is not held centrally. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) sets the standards for education for the nursing profession. There is though no regulator required post registration educational preparation for most specialist nursing roles. An employer would be responsible for creating the number of specialist nursing posts they require, based on population need. It would be expected that an organisation would develop registered nurses into specialist roles, with support from regional funding. This funding enables the development of, for example, advanced practitioners and nurse prescribers.

The NMC do publish data on registered Specialist Community Public Health Practitioners who hold specific recordable qualifications. This will not include all postgraduate training and nurses may be employed in a range of settings inside and outside of the English National Health Service. The data is available at the following link:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan set out that the NHS would focus on expanding the number of clinicians, including nurses, who train to take up enhanced and advanced roles, and work as part of multidisciplinary teams that have the right skills to meet the changing needs of patients. Supporting clinicians to train as enhanced and advanced practitioners will also help to retain staff by offering a valuable career progression opportunity.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets the ambition of training at least 3,000 advanced practitioners in 2023/24 and 2024/25, and increasing the number in training further to 5,000 a year by 2028/29. By 2031/32, we expect that more than 6,300 clinicians will start training to become advanced practitioners each year.


Written Question
Nurses: Training
Friday 15th December 2023

Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the necessary proportion of full time equivalent general nurses who become full time equivalent specialist nurses after accreditation to meet NHS workforce need.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information on the number and proportion of nurses who become specialist nurses after accreditation is not held centrally. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) sets the standards for education for the nursing profession. There is though no regulator required post registration educational preparation for most specialist nursing roles. An employer would be responsible for creating the number of specialist nursing posts they require, based on population need. It would be expected that an organisation would develop registered nurses into specialist roles, with support from regional funding. This funding enables the development of, for example, advanced practitioners and nurse prescribers.

The NMC do publish data on registered Specialist Community Public Health Practitioners who hold specific recordable qualifications. This will not include all postgraduate training and nurses may be employed in a range of settings inside and outside of the English National Health Service. The data is available at the following link:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan set out that the NHS would focus on expanding the number of clinicians, including nurses, who train to take up enhanced and advanced roles, and work as part of multidisciplinary teams that have the right skills to meet the changing needs of patients. Supporting clinicians to train as enhanced and advanced practitioners will also help to retain staff by offering a valuable career progression opportunity.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets the ambition of training at least 3,000 advanced practitioners in 2023/24 and 2024/25, and increasing the number in training further to 5,000 a year by 2028/29. By 2031/32, we expect that more than 6,300 clinicians will start training to become advanced practitioners each year.


Written Question
Nurses: Training
Friday 19th April 2024

Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many training places for district nurses her Department plans to make available in September 2025.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Long Term Workforce, published on 30 June 2023, sets out an ambition to increase the number of district nursing training places to 842 in 2025.


Written Question
Nurses: Training
Friday 8th September 2023

Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what training the NHS provides to nursing staff on (a) accountability and (b) reporting (i) suspicious activities and (ii) concerns.

Answered by Will Quince

All registered nurses must uphold the Code of Practice set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The NMC can act if those on their register fail to uphold the Code.

All National Health Service organisations and others providing NHS healthcare services in primary and secondary care in England are required to adopt the national Freedom to Speak Up policy as a minimum standard to help normalise speaking up for the benefit of patients and workers, including nursing staff. Its aim is to ensure all matters raised are captured and considered appropriately and the policy should be clear and regularly communicated to support learning and improvement. It is the individual employer’s responsibility to ensure that all mandatory training is completed by employees.


Written Question
Myanmar: Bilateral Aid
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using the bilateral aid allocated to the Myanmar-UK Health Partnership programme to (a) support and (b) protect (i) nurses and (ii) healthcare workers targeted by the Junta regime in Myanmar.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK Government remains committed to assisting nurses and healthcare workers in Myanmar. The Myanmar-UK Health Partnership has supported Myanmar health workers to establish pop-up clinics and provided crucial training to develop capacity in opposition-held areas. It supplies doctors and nurses in Myanmar with web-based learning materials and has provided more than 3,000 nurses with nursing training. The programme has also supported the provision of direct services through digital methods, such as telemedicine services. The programme is designed to ensure that Myanmar's population can access healthcare services despite access constraints, while reducing the risks to health workers.


Departmental Publication (Policy and Engagement)
Department of Health and Social Care

Feb. 29 2024

Source Page: Supplementary evidence to pay review bodies: hospital and community health sector, 2024
Document: (ODS)

Found: 1.1906645490102448 1.1906645490102448 Junior Doctors Core Training 2002 - Dental Core Training 4 [x]


Departmental Publication (News and Communications)
Department of Health and Social Care

Jan. 11 2024

Source Page: Government seeks views on new pay scale for NHS nurses
Document: Government seeks views on new pay scale for NHS nurses (webpage)

Found: Government seeks views on new pay scale for NHS nurses


Scottish Parliament Written Question
S6W-27191
Tuesday 14th May 2024

Asked by: Mochan, Carol (Scottish Labour - South Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will set out a plan for ensuring there is sufficient protected time for personal development plans to be completed for nurses in addition to exploring further protected time for leadership training of registered staff at all levels.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

On 1 March 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Health confirmed the implementation of the Agenda for Change Review Recommendations including the implementation of a consistent approach to Protected Learning Time across all NHS Scotland Boards. This includes the completion of statutory, mandatory and profession specific mandatory training within working hours, including for Nurses. These changes took effect from 1st April 2024

The Scottish Government presented to the Scottish Workforce and Staff Governance Committee (SWAG) on further work in relation to Protected Learning Time, on 23 April. Following this, it is the intention that SWAG will convene a sub-group to oversee delivery of work to map time requirements for statutory, core mandatory and professional mandatory training.


Departmental Publication (News and Communications)
Department of Health and Social Care

Nov. 30 2023

Source Page: Over 50,000 extra nurses in NHS - hitting government target early
Document: Over 50,000 extra nurses in NHS - hitting government target early (webpage)

Found: Over 50,000 extra nurses in NHS - hitting government target early


Written Question
Health Professions and Teachers: Training
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to work with universities to help train (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) teachers.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department is working closely with Higher Education Providers (HEP’s) to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to access a world class education. This remains a top priority and is fundamental to the government’s ambition to level-up skills, growth, and economic opportunity across the country.

Record numbers of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff will be trained in England as part of the first ever NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), which was published in June 2023. By significantly expanding domestic education, training and recruitment, we will have more healthcare professionals working in the NHS. The LTWP will:

  • Double the number of medical school places to 15,000 a year by 2031/32. To support this ambition, the government will increase the number of medical school places by a third, to 10,000 by 2028/29. This will build on the expansion of medical school places in England to 7,500 per year, a 25% increase, which the government completed in 2020 and that delivered five new medical schools. The government has accelerated the LTWP expansion by allocating 205 additional medical school places for 2024/25, a year ahead of target. The process for allocating 350 additional places for the 2025/26 academic year is underway and further details will be confirmed in due course.
  • Record numbers of nurses are now working in the NHS, and the Plan will increase adult nursing training places by 92%, taking the number of total places up to nearly 38,000 by 2031/32. To support this ambition, the government will increase training places to nearly 28,000 in 2028/29. This forms part of the ambition to increase the number of nursing and midwifery training places to around 58,000 by 2031/32. The government will work towards achieving this by increasing places to over 44,000 by 2028/29, with 20% of registered nurses qualifying through apprenticeship routes compared to just 9% now. The number of nursing applicants still continues to outstrip the places on offer. Nursing and midwifery training places are competitive, and lead to an attractive and important career in the NHS.
  • Introduce medical degree apprenticeships, with pilots running from 2024/25 so that by 2031/32, 2,000 medical students will train via this route. The department will work towards this ambition by growing medical degree apprenticeships to more than 850 by 2028/29

The government is backing the LTWP with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years. The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, the Office for Students, as well as the General Medical Council to actualise the delivery of the plan.

The department will continue to work with the sector so everyone who wants to pursue a rewarding healthcare career has the support and opportunities to do so.

There are record numbers of teachers in England’s schools, with more than 468,000 working in state-funded schools across the country, which is 27,000 (6%) more than in 2010. The department works closely with schools and universities to recruit the best teachers, in the subjects and areas they are needed most. The department has already put in place a range of measures for trainees in the 2023/24 academic, including bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000, to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key subjects such as chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics.

The department is also offering a levelling up premium worth up to £3,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is doubling the rates of the levelling up premium to up to £6,000 after tax. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

The department is also working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) and an employer-led trailblazer group to develop the Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA). The TDA will be a new route into the teaching profession, for both primary and secondary teachers, through which successful candidates will ‘earn while they learn’ and attain an undergraduate degree and qualified teacher status while working in a school.  Subject to IfATE approvals, the TDA standard will be published in spring 2024, with the candidate recruitment commencing from autumn 2024 and training commencing in autumn 2025.