…Labour ‘not serious’ about cutting immigration – opposition
Laura Trott, United Kingdom’s (UK) education secretary, has stated that the government has reduced teaching grants for universities, and abolished nearly all higher-level apprenticeships to train more British citizens as nurses and other healthcare fields.
This has resulted in an 11,000-person shortfall in the NHS (National Health Service) workforce plan, causing more reliance on overseas workers.
Critics warn that this could undermine the UK’s commitment to reduce NHS’s dependence on overseas workers.
Recall that the UK government has in recent times, introduced policies aimed at reducing net migration. Recently, the government halted the hiring of overseas care workers.
Now with the funding cuts to train British nurses, the UK may still need to rely on overseas healthcare workers.
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Despite Labour’s manifesto pledge to develop a long-term training strategy for the NHS, Bridget Phillipson, UK’s Education Secretary froze grants that supports medical courses, including nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions such as paramedics, radiographers, and occupational therapists.
Trott criticised Labour’s approach, calling the decision “yet more evidence that Labour is not serious about cutting immigration.”
“At a time when we should be training more British people to become nurses, they’ve cut teaching grants for universities and scrapped almost all higher-level apprenticeships, leaving an 11,000 shortfall in the NHS workforce plan,” she said.
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Ministers have quietly halted funding increases for universities, which had helped to cover the additional costs of training medical professionals. The decision amounts to a real-terms cut, sparking fears of worsening financial pressures and an increased reliance on imported labour.
Impact on universities and workforce training
Higher education institutions are already struggling to sustain nursing courses, with research indicating that job cuts among lecturers are on the rise as universities seek to manage their budgets.
Concerns have also been raised that broader spending reductions, including those expected in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s upcoming spending review, will further erode investment in education.
Phillipson stated that per-student funding would remain unchanged from the previous year, effectively reducing financial support in real terms. This decision forms part of a wider £108 million cut to the Strategic Priorities Grant.
Patricia Marquis, executive director for the Royal College of Nursing in England, warned that the funding freeze could have dire consequences for the sector.
“A freeze in per-student funding, effectively a real-terms cut, could make a bad situation worse, resulting in not only more job losses but impacting the very financial viability of nursing courses,” she said.
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Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, echoed these concerns, stating that reductions to grants, coupled with cuts to apprenticeship funding, would have a detrimental impact on training future healthcare professionals.
