Health Education England’s Chief Nurse welcomes the WHO year of focus on Nurses and Midwives

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and the Midwife”, in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale.

Mark Radford, Health Education England’s Chief Nurse has today set out HEE’s commitment to Nursing and Midwifery highlighting areas of key focus for the year ahead.

Mark said:

It is fantastic that WHO are focussing on nursing and midwifery across the globe, recognising they vital role they play in providing expert patient care.

Year of the Nurse and Midwife in England is a key priority for Health Education England and we have many events planned to celebrate with our key partners.   In this year of the nurse and midwife we will continue to be focussed on celebrating their expertise and contribution, as well as working with partners on key actions from the Interim people plan to increase numbers across the NHS and Social care.   The People plan will set out further actions that HEE will take with partners to education, recruit and retain nurses and midwives.

Health Education England will help by:

• Encouraging nurses to return to practice - our return to practice scheme will help to support more nurses to return to the regulatory register. Last June 2019 we launched a scheme to promote returning to practice and provide information on financial support available to returners.In the last five years, over 4,200 nurses have successfully completed the programme;
• Providing an additional £150 million to NHS Trusts from 2020/21 to enable employers to allocate a £1,000 training budget for every nurse, midwife and allied health profession over the next three years;
• Investing in district nursing, we have made £18.5m available to boost the numbers of nurses working in our communities; and
• Supporting pathway routes into nursing – Health Education England is committed to providing flexible pathways into nursing, to increase numbers of nurses and widen participation in the nursing profession. New routes comprise the nursing degree apprenticeship and Nurse Associate role.