For much of the 1990s the student bursary was frozen. In the last three years we have increased it so that the 50,000 students studying for a nurse diploma now each receive 4,805 a year. Student nurses are crucial to the future of the health service. Currently one in six of them give up their course before they have completed it. That has to change.
Student nurses deserve more than they are currently getting.
So from September, student nurses studying for a diploma will each receive a 500 increase in their bursary. This is the biggest increase since the introduction of the student nurses bursary. In last week's Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the NHS in England would receive an additional 835 million over the next three years. Further details of the allocation of the 250 million balance will be made shortly. The increases are on top of a long-term expansion in NHS funding announced by the Chancellor in last year's budget which will see NHS funding increase by one third in real terms in the five years between 1999 and 2004.