RCN Deputy Director for Nursing, Dr Nichola Ashby, said:
“The UK Government has stumbled at the first hurdle of their NHS Workforce Plan, with 13% fewer people expected to take up nursing courses this year in England. These numbers are not just a sad story for today, but a story for years to come of how the ministers baked future nursing shortages into the NHS.
“If the NHS Workforce Plan is to succeed, the UK Government must start providing details on how the Plan will begin to deliver the students the NHS needs to see for the future workforce. It must fund more university places for nursing students and remove the burden of student debt and tuition fees from prospective nurses.
“Being a nurse is one of the greatest careers that any prospective students can choose. During a cost-of-living crisis, they are being put off by the prospect of debt, low salaries and poor working conditions.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
According to the Health Foundation, the NHS Workforce Plan (England) requires nursing and midwifery training intakes to increase by about 32,000 by 2031-32 from 40,400 in 2022/23 to 72,400 by 2031/32. The latest UCAS clearing data shows a 13% fall in the number of acceptances to universities in England in 2023 (from 16,120 in 2022 to 14,010 in 2023).
