The healthcare careers deprived areas plan has arrived with 2,000 nursing apprenticeships, support for 2,000 young people applying to medical courses and £15 million for around 3,000 people entering NHS roles or training. The stethoscope has joined the mentoring scheme. It already knows where everyone’s pulse is, so the Government felt it was ready for administration.
The nursing apprenticeships will focus on places with serious shortages and high deprivation. They offer an earn while you learn route without forcing applicants to leave their communities or locate several thousand pounds behind the sofa. The sofa has declined the responsibility.
Healthcare careers deprived areas and the paperwork obstacle course
The medical support includes access courses, summer schools and NHS placements. The Government says one third of schools have never had a pupil apply to medical school. Around half have never had a student accepted. The information pipeline is working beautifully, provided nobody asks where it begins.
Medical school places may also move towards areas with poorer health outcomes or ageing populations. This is the administrative equivalent of noticing that the queue is in the wrong building and moving the sign. The sign will then require a consultation, a password and proof that the applicant can already read signs.
The plan also aims to increase by 50% the proportion of medical students who received free school meals by 2035. Brenda Stethoscope, a fictional careers adviser, supports the ambition. She remains less certain about the system’s enthusiasm for confidence, resilience and knowing which mysterious form appeared in an email sent to somebody else.
Meanwhile, the £15 million programme will support around 3,000 young people into NHS entry level roles or training, including vital back office work. More doors are opening. Several lead to another door, a password reset and a twelve week wait for the password reset team.
The serious point is simple. Widening access needs money, information, training and routes that do not favour people who already know the route. That is why the healthcare careers deprived areas plan matters. Brenda has applied for a nursing apprenticeship. The form asks whether she has supported others, so she has listed every department that ever lost one.
Source: GOV.UK.
