Workforce issues
be expected to cost around £230 million per year for nursing, midwifery and AHP graduates, which the authors note is less than the amount to be saved by Treasury through the incoming changes to the student loan repayment scheme. The scheme could be expanded to doctors at a cost of around £170 million per year. The Nuffield Trust report suggests that fixing leaks in the domestic staff pipeline would have an immediate impact on the number of clinicians joining the NHS. Current proposals contained in the government’s NHS Long Term Workforce Plan largely focus on increasing the number of training places. The Nuffield Trust analysis also revealed that
6,325 fewer new nurses with a UK nationality joined NHS hospital and community services in the year to March 2022 compared with the two years before that (a fall of 32%). The Nuffield Trust says this rapid and significant fall will need to be monitored to see if it is a one-off drop or part of a wider trend. Nuffield Trust Senior Fellow and report author Dr. Billy Palmer said: “These high dropout rates are in nobody’s interest: they’re wasteful for the taxpayer, often distressing for the students and staff who leave, stressful for the staff left behind, and ultimately erode the NHS’s ability to deliver safe and high-quality care. “Simply ploughing more staff into training without thinking either about why they leave, or what might tempt them to stay, is enormously short-sighted. The government’s plans to increase clinical training places must be accompanied by a realistic plan to encourage staff to stay and reward them for doing so. “Our proposal to write off student debt is
affordable, credible and could be implemented straight away. Policymakers need to seize this opportunity and begin to stem the unacceptable levels of attrition in the NHS workforce.”
‘Emergency measures’ needed In addition to attrition, recruitment is also posing challenges. Following the publication of the Nuffield Trust report, published last year, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is now calling on the government to introduce an ‘Emergency package of measures’, to tackle ‘a collapse in nursing applicants’. RCN leader Pat Cullen warned that new official figures from UCAS show a further sharp drop in applicants to nursing courses for the next academic year. The university and colleges admissions service confirms a 26% collapse in the number of applicants to study nursing in England in just two years, despite the Long Term Workforce Plan for the NHS. In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Victoria Atkins, Pat
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Cullen said that the budget on 6 March must fund emergency measures, including removing student loans for future nurses to rapidly increase applications. Cullen warned that the figures leave the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in danger of falling off course and pose “a direct threat to the sustainability of the NHS and patient safety”. The figures from UCAS released on 15
February 2024 show that there were just 24,680 nursing applicants to education providers in England this year, compared to 27,370 applicants in 2023 and 33,410 in 2022. This represents a 10% fall in the last year and a 26% fall in the last two years. The fall is underlined by a collapse in the number of mature students from the UK applying for nursing degrees offered by education providers in England, having fallen by 11% in just one year. This has continued to trend downwards, falling from 18,980 in 2021 to 11,190 in 2024. Historically, many have chosen nursing as a second career. In her letter to the Health Secretary, Pat Cullen added: “I’m writing to express my deep concern about the rapidly deteriorating state of nurse recruitment. Failure to address these critical issues will make the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan unattainable, leaving the healthcare system dangerously understaffed and unable to meet the growing demands of patients. “These latest figures expose a widening gap between the aspirations of the plan and the level of political effort required to make them a reality. This needs immediate intervention and corrective action to protect patients now and in the future. A decline in applicants risks causing a cascading effect, with fewer students accepted onto nursing courses leading to diminished course cohorts and eventually lower numbers graduating and becoming registered nurses. “The UK government must recognise the
severity of this emergency and take immediate action to prevent further decline in nursing recruitment. We believe the current situation poses a direct threat to the sustainability of the
NHS and patient safety, considering the existing 10.3% vacancy rate in nursing positions within the NHS in England.” She went on to urge the UK government to
introduce the following emergency package of measures in the upcoming budget: 1. Fund nursing student tuition fees: eliminate the financial burden associated with nursing education, thereby attracting a wider pool of potential candidates, and promoting social mobility within the profession.
2. Implement a loan forgiveness scheme for NHS nurses: relieve financial pressure on registered nurses working in the NHS, incentivising them to remain in the public healthcare system and contribute to long- term workforce stability.
3. Reintroduce universal living maintenance grants: maintenance grants need to reflect actual student need in terms of living costs so students can focus on their studies without experiencing financial or emotional hardship. This is a crucial step in addressing the issues around student retention, which are exacerbating the NHS workforce crisis.
Pat Cullen concluded: “It is well evidenced that nursing numbers directly impact patient outcomes; higher ratios of registered nurses to patients on shift leads to reduced lengths of stay and improved mortality. The consistent decline in the number of nursing students marks a pressing patient safety concern. We urge the government to tackle this issue head on and work with the RCN and other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive plan that effectively addresses the nursing recruitment crisis. We stand ready to work collaboratively to ensure a sustainable and robust nursing workforce for the future.” CSJ
References 1.
https://dmscdn.vuelio.co.uk/publicitem/ 30ecfff2-c2f9-4179-9ae5-8f061d262544
2. ttps://
dmscdn.vuelio.co.uk/publicitem/ 9ff74092-9439-4618-a2f4-8c6375156577
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