Free courses to help former nurses return to practice

Former nurses are to be offered free training courses to help them return to the profession as part of a new campaign to be launched by Health Education England.

Entitled Come Back to Nursing, the initiative is set to be formally introduced in the coming days, with early details reported by the Nursing Times suggesting that Health Education England will waive fees for return-to-practice courses, while also offering £500 to pay for expenses and guaranteed placements.

Efforts will also be made to improve and standardise the design of these courses, while ensuring they are available in every region across England. It is hoped that this will help address the current nursing skills shortage.

Currently, there are thousands of qualified nurses whose registration has lapsed and could easily return to the workforce with the right amount of training.

Professor Janice Stevens, managing director of Health Education West Midlands, said: "I don't know what percentage of those will be interested but I am hoping we will be inundated."

The government introduced new safe staffing laws for hospitals earlier this year, meaning recruitment rates are high on the agenda at the moment.