Wes Streeting: ‘If you train to be a nurse or midwife there should be a job waiting for you’

Writing exclusively for Nursing in Practice, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, shares the motivation behind the government’s ‘Graduate Guarantee’ plan for nursing and midwifery that launched today, and pledges easier job access for newly qualified professionals at an increasingly tough time for the workforce.

‘As this government rebuilds our NHS, it’s not only patients who are benefitting with shorter waiting times. Nurses and midwives are now on the front line of a health service that’s bouncing back.

Thanks to our Plan for Change, waiting lists are down 260,000 since the election. We’ve recruited an extra 2,000 GPs. And despite the tight finances, we’ve found the money to give NHS staff above inflation pay rises two years on the bounce.

As one member of the workforce told me recently: “there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and for the first time, I don’t think it’s an oncoming train about to hit me.”

No doubt, there’s a long way to go. But we’re already seeing the effects of recovering morale. Far fewer nurses are walking out on the NHS. More want to join its ranks. 

Retaining those skilled professionals means patients will receive more experienced, better care. And it supports the government’s effort to reduce net migration. While the previous government ended up recruiting nurses from countries on the World Health Organization’s Red List due to their desperate shortages of medical staff, we are training our own homegrown talent. The NHS is becoming self-reliant.

But we have inherited a crazy situation where student nurses and midwives are going through years of training then struggling to find a job at the end.

I’m sure Nursing in Practice readers will agree with me that doesn’t make any sense.

Every year we see thousands make that special choice to train as nurses and midwives, to become the highly skilled professionals helping us prevent health problems before they start, caring for us when we’re sick and guiding us to parenthood and beyond.

They sign up for their courses, juggle their studies with hands-on training and work long hours to learn the skills they need. It’s a huge personal and financial commitment and they step up, again and again.

I won’t accept a situation where despite that dedication, some nurses and midwives don’t know if they’ll have a job when they graduate.

If you train to be a nurse or midwife, if you work hard to get the right skills, then there should be a job waiting for you at the end of it. It’s as simple as that.

That’s why our new Graduate Guarantee matters. By investing in our graduates, we’re making a promise to them – we see you, we need you, and we’re here to support you from day one.

It’s the right thing to do and it’s also a healthy dose of common sense.

We’ll make sure the nurses and midwives we desperately need can start the careers they have worked so hard to prepare for, straight away.

When I went through treatment for kidney cancer, I received expert, compassionate care from NHS nurses. Nurses are the backbone of our health service. They were there for me, and I will be there for them.’

Wes Streeting

Nursing in Practice is seeking further confirmation from the government on the exact details of the plan and when it will be funded, with further updates to follow.