Why I’m speaking up for the NHS bursary today

Today I’ll be speaking at a rally for student nurses, midwives and other healthcare students who face damaging Tory plans to scrap the NHS bursary. This is an incredibly important issue, and the effects of these poorly thought through proposals could hurt the NHS by hitting recruitment and morale.

With just a few lines in the Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced the biggest shake up in the funding of nursing, midwifery and allied health subjects since the Health Services and Public Health Act of 1968. The Chancellor is passing on the full cost of training to these essential frontline staff for the first time. This was precisely why I led a debate in parliament about this on 14th December.

Nursing and midwifery students currently pay no tuition fees for their studies and receive a non-means-tested grant of up to £1,000 and a means-tested bursary of up to £3,191 to help with the costs of living while they study and train. That is significant because students on both courses are required to work throughout their degrees in clinical practice, where they are subject to the full 24-hour care cycle.

This is significant because students on both courses are required to work throughout their degrees in clinical practice, where they are subject to the full 24 hour care cycle. They work evenings, nights and weekends, with nurses required to work at least 2,300 hours across their degree.

Their courses are longer, their holidays shorter and their placements are demanding. Those who do paid work outside of their course can end up working over 60 hours a week as a result.

There has been public outcry at the planned loss of the NHS bursary, but the Government’s plans go even further. Nursing and midwifery students will not only lose their bursaries for maintenance, they will also be expected to take out loans to pay for their tuition fees for the first time.

These changes will burden these students with huge debts of at least £51,600, which they will be expected to begin paying back as soon as they graduate because nurses currently earn a starting salary just over the repayment threshold – which is now shamefully frozen at £21,000.

As a result, nurses will take an average pay cut of £900 a year as debt repayments kick in.

It is not hard to understand why the Government’s shift in policy is generating so much concern and anxiety. I have heard representations from Unison, the Royal College of Nursing, the National Union of Students, the University of Hertfordshire, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy among others.

Nurses care for us in some of our darkest and most painful moments, and the weight of their responsibility carries with it a heavy physical and emotional load. The same is true for our midwives. One spoke of the difficulties that she faced when a baby was stillborn and she had to comfort the mother, while also taking hand and foot prints so that the parents would have memories of the baby they lost.

She will never forget the shift when she spent 12 and a half hours with a mother who miscarried twins. She had five hours of rest, and then came back to do another 12 and a half hours with the same woman. She has supported the delivery of 10 babies, and she feels immense pride in being part of the wondrous moment of childbirth.

As the saying goes “save one life and you’re a hero, save a hundred lives and you’re a nurse”.

These people are seeking to qualify into these difficult professions and form the NHS of tomorrow. They deserve our respect, admiration and support and the right incentives to continue or even commence study in the first place. I sincerely hope that these changes are not nodded through and are subject to full parliamentary scrutiny and a vote.

Wes Streeting is the Member of Parliament for Ilford North and a member of the Treasury Select Committee.