Written by Emily Dixon, Senior Research and Content Officer, London Higher.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan makes it clear that we need more healthcare professionals. It sets out ambitious growth targets for training UK learners in every corner of healthcare, including a 38% growth in mental health nurses in training and a 29% growth in pharmacists in training. The urgent need for more qualified professionals in healthcare is particularly acute in London, where rates of vacancies are the highest of any UK region and “chronic nurse shortages” affect the NHS. If the need for more qualified health professionals is urgent everywhere, it is particularly so in the capital where there were more than 10,000 vacancies at the end of 2023.
Mature students, particularly those who are female and of an ethnicity other than white, drive the trainee nursing population in London. For this reason, London in particular, should be concerned about the trends we are seeing in the most recent UCAS data indicating that every age group of students over 25 has had a decrease in accepted applicants compared to 2023. The number of students aged 35 being accepted on degrees in the UK has decreased by almost 10%, from just under 17,000 in 2023 to just under 15,400 this year. Subjects allied to medicine, the group of subjects including nursing and other essential healthcare subjects, have accepted over a thousand fewer applicants than they did in 2023, despite desire to increase training numbers.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to see the exact numbers for how many mature students in subjects allied to medicine have been accepted in London at the moment. It is possible, however, to see that London higher education institutions have accepted slightly fewer students aged 25 and above across all subject areas than they did last year. Looking at the data in the context of the already acute healthcare shortages in London, and knowing about the profile of the older students who frequently choose to train or retrain in healthcare, we can surmise that London’s healthcare courses may be facing another year of lower intake numbers among mature students.
These numbers prompt important questions about how London’s higher education institutions can attract enough students on health courses to ensure that the NHS is well-staffed and strong in the future. Firstly, how can we expand the appeal of healthcare disciplines to younger students? Secondly, how can we maintain the appeal of healthcare disciplines among the older learners who have been such a huge part of the training population so far?
Both of these questions are complex, and we will need solutions to both if we want to get enough students into the disciplines the NHS needs to keep serving London’s large and diverse population.
The London Healthcare Education Group’s recent #StudyNursingLondon and #StudyRadiographyLondon campaigns have aimed to show prospective learners in a range of age groups testimonies from real, current students in nursing, diagnostic radiography and therapeutic radiography explaining why they decided training in these careers was right for them. Younger students and school-leavers who may not be aware of the diversity of disciplines and pathways that exist in healthcare will be able to receive this info through the medium of video content. They may know what ‘nursing’ is but not the exact differences between adult, child, mental health and learning disability nursing, and why one sub-discipline might fit well with their skills and goals even if others don’t. They may not be aware of smaller disciplines like podiatry at all. Older learners may need support with the logistics and costs of studying. Prospective mature students are more likely to have dependents to support, and need to understand clearly what their study hours, job prospects and financial burdens will look like several years in advance. This is all the more true in the context of the ongoing cost of living crisis. Many London higher education institutions have specific bursaries and scholarships available for students in healthcare disciplines to support with this, on top of the NHS bursary.
There needs to be more, and better, collaboration between London’s higher education institutions offering training in healthcare, the London NHS and sector more widely, to be able to successfully reverse the trends we have been seeing. Working together means that conversations across discipline and career areas on recruitment and retention, through groups like LHEG, can help with taking collaborative approaches to issues like placement provision. If all areas of nursing and allied health are experiencing the same issues at the same time, then searching for solutions needs to be done collaboratively, so that London can work towards meeting the needs of the NHS in all the areas that need it.
