Nursing students to receive £5,000 payment a year

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that all nursing students on courses from September 2020 will receive a payment of at least £5,000 a year.

The funding, which students will not need to pay back, will be given to all new and continuing degree-level nursing, midwifery and many allied health students from September 2020. It is expected to benefit more than 35,000 students every year and comes as part of the government’s pledge to increase nurse numbers by 50,000 over the next five years. The funding will be available from next year.

Students will receive at least £5,000 a year, with up to £3,000 further funding available for eligible students, including for: specialist disciplines that struggle to recruit, including mental health; an additional childcare allowance, on top of the £1,000 already on offer; and areas of the country which have seen a decrease in people accepted on some nursing, midwifery and allied health courses over the past year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I have heard loud and clear that the priority of the British people is to focus on the NHS – and to make sure this treasured institution has everything it needs to deliver world-class care. Nurses epitomise everything that makes the NHS so revered across the world – skill, compassion, energy and dedication.

“On the steps of Downing Street last week, I said we will deliver 50,000 more nurses, and this new financial support package is a crucial part of delivering this. There can be no doubting our commitment to the NHS, and over the coming months we will bring forward further proposals to transform this great country.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock added: “The NHS is there for all of us in our time of need, thanks to the skill, dedication and compassion of its staff. I know from my Grandma, who worked nights as a nurse, just how compassionate and hard-working our nurses are. As we enter the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we are embarking on the biggest nursing recruitment drive in decades, backed by a new universal support package.

“We want every person considering this incredible career to apply for their university place before the UCAS deadline of 15 January, safe in the knowledge they will benefit from this financial support from the start of the next academic year. This £2 billion plus package builds on the government’s ongoing work to increase the number of places for students and is central to its commitment to deliver 50,000 more nurses on our wards. At the same time we are also urgently reviewing the pensions issue senior clinicians have told us is having a direct impact on them, so we have the staff we need to deliver the care patients deserve.”

Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “With tens of thousands of vacant nurse jobs, serious measures are needed. This grant is a first victory for the campaign that our student nurses are running. The announcement will hopefully encourage more people to apply to a nursing degree by the mid-January deadline.

“In the run up to the Budget, we continue to call for our students to not pay tuition fees up-front. Any barriers for people wanting to enter nursing must be removed. The nurses at work today need to feel valued but also confident that the staffing shortages are being addressed with adequate investment. The RCN is calling for at least £1 billion extra per year to be invested in nurse higher education to ensure patients and the public can access safe and effective health and care services.”