Nurses and midwives are facing "deep cuts" to “essential” funding for training, a new report has revealed.
In some parts of the UK, funding for on-going education throughout nurse and midwife’s careers will be cut by 45 per cent.
The Royal College of Midwives said the cuts could impact the safety of patients but Health Education England has labelled the report “misleading”.
The report was published for health education authority Council of Deans and Health.
It details that “continued professional development” funding for nurses and midwifes will be significantly reduced this year.
RCM director of midwifery Louise Silverton said the cuts were “particularly disturbing” because “the key to improving productivity in the NHS is through valuing and engaging the existing workforce”.
She added: “This also comes at a time when the NHS and the Government want to adapt services, for example to promote more midwife-led care.
“To cut money for workforce development and training seems very short sighted indeed. “
But Rob Smith, director of strategy and planning at Health Education England, said the report was a “misleading portrayal of the extent of Health Education England's involvement in Continuing Professional Development, which is primarily an employer responsibility”.
He said: "HEE does not, and never has had a specific allocation for general CPD for the NHS workforce.
“The report also fails to recognise the far greater investment that all NHS employers make in the development of their own staff.
"We have previously made clear that our Spending Review allocation represented a good settlement for HEE, allowing us to fund additional clinical undergraduates this year and prioritise additional investment in the future workforce as this is HEE's primary remit.”
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