HC Deb 12 May 1969 vol 783 cc968-9
27. Mr Maurice Macmillan

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will give an estimate of the cost of implementing the proposals of the Royal College of Nursing for an increase in pay of student and pupil nurses.

Mr. Crossman

The proposal was for an increase of £1 a week, and I gave the estimated cost of this in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Mr. Ted Fletcher) on 30th April.—[Vol. 782, c. 255.]

Mr. Macmillan

Will the Secretary of State consider the drop-out rate of nurses in training, and will he realise that if even 10,000 nurses could be saved out of the 40 per cent. who now fail to complete their training, this would represent only about £450 a nurse? This might save a good deal of money and bring a little more justice into dealing with the hardly-used body of student nurses.

Mr. Crossman

I am very sympathetic with the problem of student nurses, and there is a lot to be said for the view that we have to consider their whole status. After all, they are sometimes treated as juniors when they are above the age of majority under the new Act. Nevertheless, this is a wage agreement which has just been agreed with the Whitley Council and which has only just come into force. I am prepared to give the Whitley Council a chance to consider it again. There is an area which I want to look at, and that is the money, not strictly the wage, paid to student nurses.

Mr. William Hamilton

Will my right hon. Friend say, if not now then in writing, what was the drop-out when the freeze of nurses' pay was implemented by the party opposite, compared with the drop-out referred to by the hon. Gentleman?

Mr. Crossman

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. If he will put that down as a Question, I shall have much pleasure in answering it.

Dame Irene Ward

Is not the Whitley Council meeting today to discuss these matters, and will the right hon. Gentleman tell the House what instructions have been given by him to the management side of the Whitley Council, so that we may know what the Minister wishes the management side of the Whitley Council to agree with the staff side?

Mr. Crossman

The meeting takes place not today but tomorrow. The answer to the second part of the hon. Lady's question is, "No".