Last month, @VanessaLGarrity from @WeMHNurses attended #MHProud16 at Middlesex University on International Nurses Day and as part of the day, took part in a debate about current mental health nursing issues.

Unsurprisingly, one of the issues debated that created a lot of discussion, both offline and offline was the question of whether the Nursing Student Bursary should be scrapped.  You can take part in the Department of Health consultation on this issue here https://consultations.dh.gov.uk/workforce/healthcare-education-funding/consult_view  . It runs till June 30^th, so be quick!

You can read about the proposals in full here

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-bursary-reform-and-nurse-education

The current position

At the moment, the position is that all students in England on university courses in nursing leading to registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council are eligible for financial support from the NHS while studying. The NHS also currently pays the course tuition fees and nursing students are not required to pay their NHS bursary once they complete the course.

The government is proposing that from August 2017 nursing and allied health care students in England will have their bursaries replaced with student loans and that students will also start to be responsible for tuition fees, whilst they study (up to £9,000 per year)

The earning threshold for repayments currently stands at £21, 000 and repayments are currently calculated at 9% of earnings over £21,000. In the consultation, the Department of Health calculates that a Band 5 nurse earning £21,700 per year will pay back around £5.25 per month. If the loan is not paid off after 30 years, the remaining balance will be written off. (RCN, 2016)

There is some factual information here from the Funding Clinic about what this will mean to you if you are applying for a Pre registration course to start after August 2017

https://t.co/atK08Skv37

The case for change…

Currently, two thirds of people that apply for a pre registration-nursing course are not accepted. The government is arguing that up to 10,000 more training places will be created by 2020, allowing universities to accept more applicants with the right qualifications than they normally do. It is also been argued that student nurses will receive 25% more financial support while they study, under the proposed new scheme.

From a nursing workforce perspective, it is claimed that these changes will help to create more homegrown future Nurses, not just for the NHS, but for the independent and private sector as well. This is because the cost of training currently is borne by the NHS. Because of this, there has been an artificial cap on the numbers in training that has been limited only to the numbers needed to meet basic workforce requirements. The lack of flexibility in training numbers has increased the risk of workforce supply shortages, resulting in it being necessary to recruit a significant number of nurses from overseas and to rely on bank and agency staff to fill the shortfall.

Under the proposed new scheme, it is suggested that there will be a number of benefits

• A greater supply of domestically trained nurses, once the cap on training numbers is removed.
• More students will have their ambitions fulfilled around applying for nurse training
• Universities will be able to invest in healthcare higher education for the long term, by increasing their income for teaching costs and giving them security on the number of places
• Students will see a gain of 25% or more in financial support for their living expenses.
• For Social Care, these reforms will provide access to a longer term, more stable home grown workforce supply.

You can read the full proposals here

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changing-how-healthcare-education-is-funded

The case against…

RCN

• Bursaries are an essential for many nursing students,who could not manage financially without this support. This may discourage many people from entering the nursing profession, which will have a significant impact on the NHS and society as a whole.
• The student bursary ensures that people from a wide variety of socio economic backgrounds are able to enter the nursing profession,thus increasing the diversity of the nursing workforce.
• Student nurses are not like other students in that they spend 50% of their time in clinical practice and have much shorter holidays than other students. This leaves them with less time to find part time jobs to support their studies and effectively means that we are charging nurses who are working for the NHS during their placements.
• These proposals will mean that the future generation of nurses will be saddled with debt and unless nurse’s pay improves significantly, many will never be able to afford to pay their loans back.

You can read the RCN’s position in full here

https://www.rcn.org.uk/about-us/policy-briefings/pol-1115

At a Parliament debate, Heidi Alexander, the Shadow Health Secretary suggests that

• As the average student nurse is 28 years old at the beginning of the course, many future nurses will be paying off loans to within years of retirement
• One fifth of nursing students have children to support. The fear of debt is likely to be greater for them than what it would be for a carefree student.
• The new system will reduce diversity and will mean that those best placed to pay, rather than care will be the nurses of the future
• Mental Health Nursing relies on mature students and those with additional life experiences. Under the new scheme, this group may feel less able to apply because of the financial implications.
• Nursing students are different to other students and they should be treated differently as they are the people who look after us when we need this most.

“A few months ago, I met Marina, a young woman who has not had an easy life, but who is now on a mission to become a mental health nurse. When Marina says she thinks some of the people best placed to care for others are those who have experienced hardships themselves, I think she has a point; and when she says she would not have been able to start the training without the bursary, I believe her ( Heidi Alexander)

You can watch the full opposition debate here

http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2016/may/mps-debate-nhs-bursaries/

UNISON

• Under the proposed new scheme, nurses will have to payout £900 per year.
• Debts of £47,712 and £59,106 for those with maximum tuition and maintenance loans
• The fear of debt is likely to discourage people from becoming nurses. This will have disastrous repercussions for patient safety.
• According to an independent analysis, around 2,000 fewer people will study for a career in the NHS each year, meaning that Trusts will be spending more, rather than less on agency staff and over seas recruitment
• Universities will be worse off, as fewer students will be applying for courses
• Without workforce planning from a central body, the recould be insufficient numbers across the four branches of nursing, with some being more popular than others.

You can read a number of links here regarding UNISON’s position on these proposed changes

https://www.unison.org.uk/our-campaigns/save-the-nhs-bursary/

The original debate of the keep NHS bursary transcript is  also available here

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm160111/halltext/160111h0001.htm

We will be running a chat on this onWednesday 15^th June at 7.30p.m -8.30 p.m on our regular hashtag#Wemhns .

Weare particularly interested in exploring how these proposed changes might affect mental health nursing in the future or indeed, whether the proposed changes might improve things for the better, as the government suggests

Please join us and share your views. We hope it will be a lively debate!

As with all our chats, everyone is welcome to join the conversation.

This pre chat has been put together by @VanessaLGarrity who will be facilitating the chat.