July 2016 update

In July 2016, the Department of Health Workforce Development Team published its response, entitled ‘Reforming healthcare education funding: creating a sustainable future workforce’, to the public consultation about reforming student finance for students of nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions. The recommendation from the Department of Health Workforce Development Team remains that:

From 2017, new students will have access to the standard student support system provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to cover the cost of their tuition fees and means tested support for living costs rather than having their course fees paid by Health Education England (HEE) and receiving a bursary from the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA).

‘Reforming healthcare education funding: creating a sustainable future workforce’ also provides information to students and Higher Education Institutions on options to support those students studying a healthcare course from 2017.

With regards to the School of Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, this will affect courses that lead to professional registration in: nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, radiography (diagnostic and therapeutic)*. Please be aware that this will affect ALL students commencing their studies in these disciplines from September 2017, including those who have deferred entry from 2016 to 2017.

* Orthoptics has not been included in the list of disciplines above. This is because the Department of Health Workforce Development Team have noted concerns raised on the impact of funding reform on small and specialist subjects, which include orthoptics. The Government ‘will develop proposals to mitigate these risks’ with more detail in the second response in the Autumn 2016 (taken from page 13 of ‘Reforming healthcare education funding: creating a sustainable future workforce’).

The Department of Health Workforce Development Team is considering the possibility of making loans available for postgraduate pre-registration courses on a similar basis to undergraduate loans. However, this decision has not yet been taken; therefore 2017/18 postgraduate pre-registration courses will be commissioned based on 2016/17 numbers. This will include the University of Liverpool’s Postgraduate Diploma in Radiotherapy (pre-registration), the start date for which will be January 2018.

The Council of Deans of Health have since developed a website with funding information for prospective students for nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions degree programmes. It includes information for school leavers and mature students.