Government plans to provide up to 1,000 nursing degree apprenticeships a year will cost NHS trusts in England about \u00a3200 million annually, Chief-exec.com has been told.<\/p>\n
A Department of Health spokesman said each trust would help fund the NDAs programme through the Government\u2019s new apprenticeship levy scheme \u2013 applied equally to public and private sector organisations \u2013 that comes into effect in April next year. The trusts would then be expected to contribute 0.5 per cent of pay bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is expected to total around \u00a3200 million annually, and equates to only 0.2 per cent of total NHS spending,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will help to double spending on apprenticeships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christina McAnea, the head of health at UNISON, the public service union, said the money NHS employers would have to pay into the levy scheme would have to come from other parts of \u201ccash-strapped\u201d hospital budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a risk that levy contributions will be taken from existing training and development budgets and could squeeze money available for other forms of continuing professional development,\u201d she said yesterday.<\/p>\n
\nThere are still important questions to resolve about some important aspects of the [nursing degree] apprenticeship that do not easily fit with Nursing and Midwifery Council standards <\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Department of Health was responding to questions from Chief-exec.com following a statement last week from the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and issued before addressing the NHS Providers conference in Birmingham. It said that the first apprentice nurses could be working on wards from September and, once established, up to 1,000 apprentice nurses could join the NHS each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier this year the government committed to creating 100,000 apprenticeships within the NHS by 2020 to ensure it has a workforce with the right support, skills and numbers to provide consistently safe, high quality care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,\u201d Mr Hunt\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 A range of roles will be created, from pharmacy services assistants to associate ambulance practitioners, as well as in areas including IT, hospitality and facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHS in England has a vacancy rate of about 10 per cent or 21,000 full-time jobs.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Council of Deans of Health (CoDH) \u2013 which represents the UK\u2019s university faculties engaged in education and research for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals \u2013 said it did not know the origin of the Government\u2019s 1,000 NDAs figure but, given that setting up apprenticeships took a significant amount of time, the Council would expect the figure to include those already announced and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE).<\/p>\n