- Conference
- 2007 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 29 December 2006
- Decision
- Carried
The last five years have witnessed a significant and welcome expansion in the commissioning of student nurse training places at UK universities to sustain the NHS nursing workforce. We are now beginning to see, however, a reduction in the availability of monies available to purchase training courses this year and the potential for reductions in numbers of new students next year and beyond. If this proves to be the case, there is a real possibility of redundancies amongst university staff and a diminishment in the quality of training. Job security for university staff is important in delivering quality training. Job losses would negatively impact upon capacity building within the universities, as newer recruits to the teaching roles would be more vulnerable. It will also have a direct impact on the future workforce in years to come and affect the level of care and modernisation that we can deliver from 2010.
The reasons for this are plain to see. The current financial crisis in the NHS is having a knock-on effect in reducing funds available to commission training. Absurdly, the long-term need for more nurses has not gone away, but there are short term problems in the nursing labour market with jobs difficult to find for newly qualifying staff. This is no way to organise the workforce to meet future demands and deliver high quality care.
Over the last decade there have been numerous changes to the way in which practitioner training is commissioned, with various different bodies having responsibility for this. Right now, it is very difficult to see that commissioning is being based on anything other than reacting to short-term financial pressures. Such important decisions really ought to be based upon credible evaluation of workforce needs and planned for consistently and transparently.
UNISON should actively press the government and NHS employers to:
1.Ensure that the commissioning of nurse training numbers is based upon proper evaluation of workforce needs and planned for appropriately.
2.Review the consequences of continually changing the bodies and personnel responsible for workforce planning and commissioning of training.
3.Consider the potential waste involved in university redundancies, especially if the long-term trend of increasing student nurse commissions is to be returned to in the near future.