This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Cash Boost for Student Nurses
10/07/2001
Student nurses in Scotland are to each get an extra £500 boost as a result of a near £11 million investment in their education, Deputy Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm announced today.
The increases provide an additional £499 each for students under 26 and £562 for students over 26, with effect from 1 September 2001.
The increased awards, each year for three years, are for students undertaking a course under the Scottish Nursing and Midwifery Bursary Scheme (SNMB). Proportionate increases will be made to the means-tested NHS bursary for nursing honours degree students and for students undertaking a higher education course leading to a degree in one of the Professions Allied to Medicine (PAMS), such as physiotherapy.
Mr Chisholm said:
"Nurses play a vital role in the NHS. They are the single largest professional group. With increasingly flexible ways of working, they perform more and more varied roles, as outlined in this year's nursing strategy.
"We recognise that nursing courses are very intensive, covering 45 weeks a year, and involving extensive clinical placements. Today's investment in our student nurses reflects that level of intensity and commitment.
"Supporting student nurses is just one part of our action to bolster the service. We want the right number of nurses, in the right place and with the right skills.
"We already have a well established annual workforce planning mechanism in place, Student Nurse Intake Planning (SNIP), which makes recommendations on student intakes based on employers' forecasts and local need. But we recognise the need to do more.
"That is why we have also called on nursing leaders to get round the table for a nursing 'summit'. This will look at recruitment and retention, to help find new ways of ensuring that the NHS offers a long-term and rewarding career for nurses and would be nurses.
"Through these measures, and alongside the independent pay review process, we are working to ensure that this vital profession continues to gets the recognition, support and investment it deserves."
The package builds on this year's two major nursing documents - Caring for Scotland, our strategy for nursing and midwifery, and Nursing for Health, which promotes a greater role for nurses and midwives in public health. These each contain a variety of initiatives and commitments, reflecting our resolve to support nurses and midwives.
BACKGROUND
- The Executive is committed to increasing the number of nurses and midwives qualifying in Scotland. 10,000 will qualify over the next five years, 1500 more than previously planned.
- Today's £10.8 million package, over 3 years, is part of the extra £86 million health spending, announced on 28 July by Finance Minister Angus MacKay.
- Student nurses have full student status and receive bursaries rather than salaries. The SNMB bursary consists of two elements - a non-means tested personal allowance and a means tested dependants' allowance. Dependants' and other allowances will be increased by 2.4 per cent.
- Other students undertaking honours degree nursing courses or Professions Allied to Medicine courses are supported through a means-tested NHS bursary and student loan, in equal proportions. This uplift applies to the bursary only.
- Over the past three years, NHS staff have received above inflation pay increases - as recommended by the independent pay review bodies - in full and without staging. Since 1997 nurses pay overall has risen by 20 per cent, with the number of NHS nurses also rising consistently since 1998. Nevertheless, the Executive is engaged in a UK wide process of pay modernisation to streamline the out-dated process to determine NHS pay.
6. Full new rates, applicable from 1 September 2001 are as follows:
Annual Personal allowance / Old rate / New rate
Aged under 26 at the start of the course / £4,803 £5,302
Age 26 or over at the start of the course / £5,409 / £5,971
Graduate on 2 year training programme / £5,409 / £5,971
Single parents allowance / £891 / £912
Annual Dependants allowance (means tested maximums)
For a spouse, or one adult dependant / £1,798 / £1,841
For the first child where there is no
dependant spouse or adult / £1,798 / £1,841
For children under 11 / £378 /£387
For children of 11-15 / £755 / £773
For children of 16 and 17 / £998 / £1,021
For children aged 18 or over / £1,436 / £1,470
News Release: SE1665/2001
10 Jul 2001