Published: 29 June 2007
Nice Policy – But is anyone being trained to fill the jobs?
A new survey has been launched to discover whether the current 40% drop in health visitor training places will be reversed in 2008.
The probe by Unite/Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association is aimed at discovering what plans the 51 Higher Education Establishments (HEIs) across the UK are making to expand the training places for health visitors and school nurses for the coming academic year.
Earlier this year figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, by Unite/CPHVA revealed that more than three-quarters of the HEIs surveyed in England reported cuts in training places, amounting to an overall 40% reduction.
Following the recent Department of Health review of health visiting, Facing the Future, which Unite/CPHVA believes could herald ‘a renaissance in health visiting’, the union wants to see if that rhetoric is being matched at the sharp end where the next generation of community nurses are being trained.
The new survey also asks, for the first time, if cuts in the Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) courses have resulted in teaching staff being made redundant or ‘frozen’ academic posts at particular HEIs.
Unite/CPHVA Professional Officer, Gill Devereaux said:
“The recent review gives hope that there could be a renaissance in the profession, but for that to happen there needs to be an expansion in the current number of training places available for 2007-8”.
The number of health visitors trained in England during 2005-6 was 554 but in 2006-7, this dropped to 329 – a 40% cut.
This was despite 798 potential students applying for places at the HEIs for 2006-7. The figures for school nurse training were also bleak.
The reasons for this decline were:
· strategic health authorities stopping commissioning the SCPHN courses and
· primary care trusts (PCTs) pleading poverty
School nurse places for England were down by 10%, with 175 trained in 2005-6 and 156 in 2006-7. A total of 218 potential students applied to the HEIs in 2006-7.
Further information
Unite/CPHVA
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