The number of people studying to become nurses has fallen significantly across England. In some areas the number of successful applications has fallen by 40%, according to an analysis by the largest nurses’ union.
The latest regional data from university admissions service Ucas shows that the number of people admitted to nursing courses fell in all parts of England between 2020 and 2023.
Take-up of pre-registration courses has fallen by 40% in North East England, making the region the worst hit, according to the study. Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
Yorkshire and Humberside and South West England each recorded a fall of 25%, East England 22%, South East England 19%, North West 18%, East Midlands 15%, West Midlands 14% and London 12%.
The RCN said entire regions were being left behind by a failing nursing education system. It has called on the government to introduce a loan forgiveness and cost of living funding model for students looking to join the NHS after graduating, which it says is key to encouraging recruitment into the profession.
RCN CEO and General Secretary Prof Nicola Ranger said: “The prospect of massive debt and a lack of financial support is putting off the nurses of the future and risks leaving patients without the highly skilled nurses they so desperately need. to have. Nursing is an incredible career, but to fix a broken NHS the government needs to fix a broken nurse education model.
“There are tens of thousands of vacancies in the NHS alone and demand for services continues to rise. We desperately need more people to join the profession, but the reality is that nurse numbers are moving in the wrong direction.
“Ministers are right to want to modernize the NHS and move care into the community, but to do that you need to make nursing an attractive career again. That means forgiving the tuition loans of those who commit to working in health care and financing their living expenses. Investments in nursing are always money well spent.”
The number of students admitted to nursing courses has fallen for the past two years in a row, which Labor said was “incredibly worrying” during its opposition. In 2023, the number dropped by 13%.
The figures come a week after the government launched a consultation on its 10-year plan to transform the NHS, which includes a long-term workforce plan designed to increase the number of nurses from around 350,000 to 550,000 by 2036-37.
According to the RCN analysis, just 1,000 more people are expected to start nursing courses per year by 2029, compared to a decade earlier, while there are more than 31,000 unfilled nursing posts in the English health service.
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The RCN said nursing students needed specific funding commitments to reflect their unique circumstances and to encourage more domestic recruitment, and that a fully staffed NHS was crucial to meeting the government’s ambitions to get services back on track and shift care from hospitals to the community.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “The NHS has suffered from chronic staff shortages for years, with staff burnt out and demoralised.
“This government will build a health service fit for the future, with the staff needed to see patients on time.
“Raising the necessary staff will take time, but we are committed to delivering the largest expansion of the NHS workforce in history, with more midwives, nurses, doctors and paramedics.”