The government has announced a package of measures to breakdown barriers to healthcare careers.
The government has said that careers in the medical professions, especially doctors and health care specialists are out of reach for many because schools and families lack the knowledge needed to guide students towards medicine, or to encourage biology, chemistry, physics early enough.
A third of schools have never had a pupil apply to medical school and a half have never had a student accepted.
As part of the new measures, over the next three years, 2,000 young people from England’s most deprived areas will be supported to apply to university through government-funded medicine access courses. Support includes giving young people access to summer schools or placements within the NHS, where they can increase their knowledge and skills, boosting their university applications.
The government has also unlocked 2,000 additional nursing apprenticeships, concentrated in areas facing the greatest training shortages and highest levels of deprivation. These opportunities will allow people to earn while they learn, while building skilled, well‑paid careers without needing to leave their communities or take on upfront costs.
The government is aiming to expand or reallocate medical school places so that areas with poorer health outcomes or ageing populations train more doctors locally. The government has already pledged to increase by 50 per cent the proportion of students who received free school meals being accepted into medical school in England by 2035.
To ease the financial burden and disruption to family life, a three-year pilot programme will see Resident Doctors stay in one place for longer.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, said: "Talent is everywhere in our country, but opportunity isn’t. I don’t want the NHS denied the talents and potential of the doctors, nurses and staff of the future, simply because they are never given a chance.
"Having grown up in poverty on a council estate, getting into Cambridge University changed my life. With the most working class cabinet in history, this government is determined to change the odds for young people today.
"We’re determined to break the class ceiling in the NHS so that our professions are elite, not elitist. My message to the best and brightest young kids who want to a future caring for their country in the National Health Service is – go for it.
"By backing people from every background to train and work in the NHS, this will benefit patients, the NHS, and students."
Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for England, said: "Apprenticeships open up nursing careers to people with the skills, commitment, and compassion to care for patients, who may not have otherwise come forward for a career in the NHS.
"Investing in apprenticeships in this way will help us build the skilled nursing workforce the NHS needs, while supporting social mobility."
