MPs’ report on education echoes RCN concerns

Published: 23 May 2012

The Royal College of Nursing has called on the Government to do more to avoid “boom and bust” cycles in NHS workforce planning and to ensure nurse education can meet changing health needs.

The RCN was responding to a Health Select Committee report on NHS training, education and workplace planning, which also makes it clear that voluntary regulation of health care assistants will not be enough in the long run. The College has urged the Government to keep the regulation of health care assistants under review.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said: “The RCN has long been calling for mandatory regulation for health care assistants as we believe it is vital to patient safety and reducing the current variability in the training they receive.”

The RCN says the report echoes many of the concerns already raised by the College about the future of the NHS workforce. “We have been saying for some time that the Government needs to be clearer about how it intends to deliver the right level of training and education to ensure we have a workforce that is able to meet the changing health needs of the population,” added Dr Carter.

The RCN has serious concerns that medical education is likely to dominate health education in England and has called for the role of nursing to be given due consideration.

Dr Carter said: “The fear is that in a few years we will be facing a real shortage of nurses. Not only have the number of nurse training places significantly decreased, the RCN’s latest Frontline First report also shows that over 60,000 NHS posts are set to go. Again, the focus on the medical profession does not take into consideration the ‘boom and bust’ cycles that we have witnessed in the nursing workforce. The Government needs to make sure we have robust measures in place to avoid this scenario and pay heed to the committee’s recommendation that the NHS as a whole should aim to be more self sufficient.”