To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost was of training a midwife in the latest period for which figures are available.
There are record numbers of midwives in training and there were 1,311 more qualified midwives (full-time equivalent) in July 2013 than in May 2010.
We are not able to provide information on the total cost of training student midwives, as the Department does not monitor training spend to this level of granularity. The Department does however collect information on the average bursaries, benchmark price paid for tuition and levels of commissions for midwifery training places.
The number of midwifery students who held a bursary, the average bursary paid to those students and the total cost of all bursaries paid to student midwives in 2012-13 can be found in the following table:
Number of bursary holders(1) | Average amount paid per bursary holder(2) (£) | Total amount paid (£) | |
2012-13 | 5,448 | 6,121 | 33,344,511 |
(1) Includes nil award holders (European Union fees only students and students whose living allowance element of the bursary has been reduced to nil after income assessment). (2) Includes the basic award and all supplementary allowances and one-off payments. Source: NHS Business Services Authority |
The tuition costs for midwifery degree and diploma students are paid based on the national benchmark price. The benchmark price for both midwifery degree and diploma courses in 2012-13 are shown in the following table:
2012-13 | |
£ | |
Standard | 9,374 |
Outer London | 9,842 |
Inner London | 10,123 |
In addition to the above costs, most midwifery degree students will also be eligible for a student loan. This loan is provided by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
As part of their training student midwives undertake placements with health care providers. In 2012-13 some funding would have been paid to support these placements, but these data are not held centrally. The Government introduced tariffs for these placements from
There are several other ways midwives can be trained and where an existing national health service employee is seconded on to a midwifery programme, the student would be entitled to a salary, rather than student support. These salary costs are not collected centrally.
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