§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what plans he has to reduce student nurses' registered service contributions on National Health Service wards;
(2) what plans he has made to deal with the staffing gap that will result from making student nurses supernumerary on National Health Service wards;
(3) what percentage of the time student nurses presently spend working directly on wards in National Health Service hospitals is devoted purely to training as opposed to giving patient care; and how this calculation is made;
(4) by what date state enrolled nurse training will be phased out;
(5) whether all those state enrolled nurses eligible for conversion courses to train for qualifications to become state registered nurses will have those courses made available to them on request;
(6) what is the level of the student nurse bursary being proposed in plans to implement Project 2000;
(7) if he will make a statement as to the proposed role, annual remuneration and training programme to be carried out by nurse helpers, as defined in Project 2000.
Mr. NewmanIn accepting the broad thrust of the project 2000 proposals put forward by the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting my right hon. Friend indicated that further work needed to be done before final decisions could be reached on some of the proposals. We need to be satisfied that the UKCC's proposals for widening the entry gate to qualified nurse training and the development of proposals for the new support worker grade will successfully make good the gap in the work force resulting from the fall in school leavers, the cessation of enrolled nurse training and the lower rostered contribution of students.
Implementation of Project 2000 will be phased over a number of years, with the new support worker grade being phased in, in parallel with the phasing out of enrolled 721W nurse training. It is likely that the support worker will undertake a variety of roles, but the exact nature of the work and the training required have yet to be determined.
My right hon. Friend made it clear that agreement to the cessation of enrolled nurse training would be dependent on the successful outcome of the further work referred to above. Meanwhile, health authorities will be encouraged to expand the already growing number of courses for enrolled nurses to convert to the first (registered nurse) level.
We shall set the size of the proposed student nurse bursary, having regard to the level of support for other students among other factors, when we have received firm proposals from the statutory nursing bodies as to the duration and shape of the new courses.
722WIn work for the UKCC, management consultants Price Waterhouse estimated the current service contribution of student nurses to be 59 per cent. In arriving at this figure it took account not only of the time spent in clinical placements as part of the establishment, but the relative efficiency of a student compared with a permanent member of the work force. While Project 2000 will not significantly lessen students' clinical experience, placements in the clinical environment will in future be determined by the educational needs of the students. The detail, and therefore the extent of the reduction in the service contribution which can be restored and relied upon, has yet to be determined.