Changes to vocational BTEC healthcare qualifications could see reduction in new nurse recruits
NHS leaders are calling on the Government to urgently reconsider its decision to scrap vocational Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) courses in health and social care or risk severely exacerbating the workforce crisis.
NHS Employers – part of the NHS Confederation – has penned a letter to the education secretary James Cleverly, warning that abandoning BTEC qualifications in health and social care will put at risk an important health staffing pipeline that allows thousands of potential nursing and midwifery recruits to join degree courses each year.
Healthcare leaders across England are warning that bringing these qualifications to an end will add pressure to an already fragile health and social care recruitment sector at a time when the ecosystem is plagued by chronic staff shortages, with 105,000 across the health service alone and a further 150,000 in social care.
Recent government education policy changes, however, look to spell the end of the BTEC qualifications in health and social care by 2024, with the vocational diplomas instead being replaced by new two-year, post GCSE T-Level courses.
NHS leaders are now urging the Government to rethink its approach, warning that abandoning BTECs in health and social care will jeopardise the recruitment of a valuable cohort of future health and care staff due to a lack of suitable training pathways.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, lamented the changes: “Abolishing these important BTEC courses in health and social care is an incredibly short-sighted decision by the Government.”
“At a time when the NHS is already extremely short staffed and carrying 105,000 vacancies, depriving the health service of a pipeline of fresh nursing, midwifery and other healthcare recruits, is both reckless and ill-advised and could well leave the NHS, as well as our colleagues in social care, to grapple with trying to fill several thousand more vacancies every year in the years to come.”
Around 30,000 students are currently studying for health and social care related BTEC qualifications in England, of which approximately 14,700 are studying full time.
