The government will fund its new ‘graduate guarantee’ by converting up to 17,000 healthcare support worker vacancies into registered nursing and midwifery posts, and by allowing trusts to “flex” a further 24,000 nursing vacancies into graduate roles.
Ministers this week unveiled their so-called graduate guarantee scheme to address mounting difficulties faced by newly qualified nurses and midwives in securing jobs in the NHS
From this summer, trusts will be allowed to hire graduates before vacancies formally arise, with recruitment based on projected need rather than headcount.
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting told Nursing Times this week that trusts would be able to convert vacant healthcare support worker roles into posts for newly qualified nurses and midwives.
There are currently 17,000 healthcare support worker vacancies, all of which are already funded.
The government said these could be converted into registered posts, while a further 24,000 nursing vacancies across all pay bands could be “flexed” into band 5 graduate roles if required.
Responding to this idea, Professor Alison Leary, chair of healthcare and workforce modelling at London Southbank University, questioned whether it reflected the reality faced by health service providers.
She said: “It’s encouraging that the issue of under employment of graduate nurses has been recognised but it’s hard to reconcile these figures with what employers are telling us.
“We hear on a regular basis of trusts offering [mutually agreed resignation schemes] or redundancy to skilled registered nurses due to cost pressures,” she said.
Yesterday, Unison head of health Helga Pile warned that removing healthcare support worker roles to create registered nurse posts would not fix the underlying workforce gaps.
She said: “Nursing and midwifery graduates deserve a clear path into NHS jobs.
“But creating more vacancies for them by removing posts for support workers won’t address the overall staffing gaps hampering quality care.
“Reducing opportunities for people to come into clinical support roles is counter-productive too,” she said.
The Department of Health and Social Care has pledged £8m to support the conversion of maternity support worker posts into band 5 midwifery roles, but equivalent funding for nursing posts is yet to be announced.
Health sector leaders have also raised concerns about whether the graduate guarantee will be fully funded.
The chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles, warned that trusts were “already under enormous pressure” and that there was no spare money.
“Any further unfunded measures risk eating into frontline services,” he added.
