Agenda item

The motion was moved by Councillor De Ryk and seconded by Councillor

Brown.

Councillors Moore and Walsh vacated the meeting during consideration of this

item.

The motion was then put to the vote and declared to be unanimously carried.

RESOLVED that the following motion be agreed:

“This Council believes:

The Government is in the process of fundamentally changing the Higher

Education Funding settlement agreed by Parliament by increasing costs to

students by the back door. The Government's planned increase in charges,

and removal of Maintenance Grants to students from the poorest households

will adversely affect the widening participation agenda. These changes are

being implemented before the Higher Education White Paper has even been

drafted.

Widening Participation isn't about saving a couple of seats at ivory tower

institutions for a few exceptionally bright kids from the working classes.

Proposals to increase Higher Education costs further and, more

fundamentally, to vary the terms of a contract after it's been agreed by parties

means a student can now never be sure how much they are going to repay.

This will shake the confidence of any future student, particularly those who

come from the poorest backgrounds.

The government has also introduced a cut of 24 per cent to the adult

education budget this year, which will has had and will continue to have

serious ramifications for Further Education provision in England. From IT

literacy courses supporting adults aiming to upskill for the workplace, to arts

courses providing a safe space for vulnerable adults, adult education

provision helps many who missed out on qualifications at school to achieve,

retrain, and re-join the workforce.

That whilst we support increasing the domestic supply of nurses and other

healthcare professionals training and joining the NHS, the idea that this is

achieved by removing NHS bursaries is a flawed one. Whilst we recognise

there is only a finite resource available to government to support trainee

nurses, there are other resource implications, beyond financial capacity, of

increasing trainee nurse places by 10,000 by 2020.

Those representative bodies for the professions have also judged the

Government's plans as ill-conceived. Janet Davies Chief Exec of the Royal

College of Nurses said: "Removing their bursaries will have a serious impact

on them [Nurses] financially and put the future supply of nurses at serious

risk.". Carmel Lloyd, Head of Education at the Royal College of Midwifery

said: "This is a change that has huge implications for both our student midwife

members and an already understaffed maternity service”.

That as a local authority now involved in the London NHS Devolution

programme, we must play an ever greater and more active role in NHS

workforce policy.

“This Council notes:

Currently, students in England who started university from 2012 will pay 9% of

everything earned above £21,000 a year (or £1,750/month pre-tax salary)

once they graduate. In 2010, the Government promised that from April 2017

this repayment threshold would be increased each year in line with average

earnings. It has now backtracked on the promise given to students, effectively

hiking costs retrospectively. A move that, according to the Government, will

mean more than two million graduates will end up paying £306 more each

year by 2020-21 if they earn over £21,000.

The current government also plans to scrap maintenance grants for full-time

Higher Education students in England from 2016, and replace them with more

loans instead. Maintenance Grants support thousands of students from the

lowest income households like those in Lewisham every year, and the

Government's plan will saddle poorer students with yet more debt. The NUS

estimates that 500,000 academically capable students rely on Maintenance

Grants currently, and that the cuts mean that more than 40 per cent of

students will now graduate with debts of up to £53,000 from a three year

university course.

The Government plans remove £800,000,000 of bursaries for nursing

students’, midwives, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists,

podiatrists, radiographers, dietetics, ODP's and other students on NHS

supported bursaries, replacing them with loans from September 2017,

repayable by these students.

UNISON has calculated that a student nurse graduating in 2020 under this

new financial regime could leave with debts over £50,000, yet be starting out

in the workplace on a salary under £23,000.

This Council resolves:

To support the student nurses, The National Union of Students, and Trade

Unions/Associations in the condemnation of this assault on Higher Education,

widening participation and the NHS.

To respond to future Government consultations on the removal of NHS

Bursaries and the Higher Education Green Paper calling for any changes to

tuition fees, loan rates, or the selling off of the Student Loan Book to be

debated and agreed by parliament.”