Written questions, answers and statements

Nurses: Recruitment

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Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 3466, tabled on 17 May 2022

Question

Steve McCabe
Labour
Birmingham, Selly Oak
Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of changes to nursing bursaries on UK nursing recruitment.

Answer

Edward Argar
Conservative
Charnwood
Commons

Answered on

24 May 2022

As of February 2022, there were 314,861 full time equivalent nurses employed in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England. This is an increase of 23,053 since February 2020 and an increase of 38,252 since February 2017.

We have committed to delivering 50,000 more nurses in England by the end of this Parliament through improving domestic training pipelines, international recruitment and the retention of existing staff. This is supported by non-repayable training grants of at least £5,000 per year to eligible nurses. In the 2022 recruitment cycle, there were approximately 43,000 applicants to nursing and midwifery courses - a 25% increase compared to January 2020. There are currently more than 72,000 students training to be nurses in England.

Answered by

Department of Health and Social Care
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