Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of changes to training funding on the numbers of child psychotherapists training and qualifying as part of the NHS workforce.

Ben Gummer

In the November 2015 Spending Review, the Government announced changes to how healthcare student places will be funded. The policy intention of the reforms is to change the funding system for pre-registration undergraduate and postgraduate courses in nursing, midwifery and allied health subjects. From 1 August 2017, these courses will be funded through the standard student loans system; and will not receive Health Education England funding for tuition and students or an National Heaslth Service bursary. The changes will apply to new students only.

Child Psychotherapists courses are not included in the policy intention for these reforms as they do not attract funding through the NHS Bursary Scheme.