Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2016 to Question 23092, how the figure of 10,000 for the number of additional training places universities will be able to provide by the end of the current Parliament was calculated.

Ben Gummer

As announced by the Chancellor in the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government has committed to remove the cap on the number of students studying nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions from 1 August 2017. This will enable universities to offer up to 10,000 new training places for students to start these courses in this Parliament.

This reflects estimates on the level of unmet demand for places in the current system where, as an example, for nursing, around two out of three nursing applicants who currently apply for a place are turned down.

The Government is working with health and higher education delivery organisations to determine an appropriate baseline as part of implementing the reforms.