My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken in this debate, particularly the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, who returned early from the WHO to take part in it.
I am left, though, with huge concerns and a real puzzlement as to the Government’s approach. As the noble Lord, Lord Willis, said, faced with this huge crisis in nursing in particular but also among the other professions covered by the regulation, the Government, without any evidence base, seem to be setting out a plan to discourage older women and people from black and minority ethnic groups from entering nursing, midwifery and other professions. In the breakdown of postgraduate healthcare students, the statistics show clearly that 64% are over the age of 25, women are largely attracted to this route and there is a higher percentage of minority ethnic students. We also know from the Department for Education’s own analysis that those groups are known to be more debt-averse. So the consequence is bound to be a negative impact on the very group of people we probably most need to come into the nursing profession.
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The Minister justifies that by saying that loans are higher than bursaries. That is one way of putting it but, of course, bursaries are grants and loans are loans, and the fact is that to many people a debt is a debt. I really worry about the Government, who are
seeking say, “Don’t worry, you can run up a huge debt because the chances are that you’re not going to have to repay it”. The Minister has lectured me about economic policy in the past but I have to say that this is the most extreme example of “funny money” I have ever come across. He tried to reference it back to the Labour Government, but I remind him that we never intended that the amount of fees that would have to be paid would reach anything like what they are now. We believed in a shared responsibility; the current Government believe in transferring all responsibility to students.