To think student nurses should be entitled to 30 hours childcare

[BanginChoons]

Student nurses and midwives work 37 hour weeks on placements which account for 50% of their course. The other 50% is spent studying in university for 5 days a week in lectures and skills labs. As of September the NHS bursary will not be available and students will take out loans which means effectively they will be paying to work for the NHS.

AIBU to suggest those who are parents should be entitled to the same 30 hours free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds which other full time working families will receive?

All children get this whether their parents work or not? I understand it is universal

Only families where the resident parents work. Being a student nurse doesn't count as work as it's unpaid.

the 15 hours are universal the 30 hours aren't.

No, everyone gets 15 hours for 39 weeks per year, based on school terms.

Where both parents work more than 24 hours per week this increases to 30 hours over 39 weeks.

And yes OP, they should be entitled to these hours.

It's hard enough already with the shift patterns, nights etc. I don't know how anyone could do it without excellent family support.
It's a complete con as well as although you aren't supposed to be 'counted in the numbers' you know you are!
However, the NHS is strapped to the max and some stuff is going to have to go.

YANBU.

Student loans will cover childcare won't they? Or they used to

It looks like it is just for working parents: www.madeformums.com/news-and-gossip/30-hours-of-free-childcare---will-my-child-get-it/38143.html

In which case I agree with BanginChoons and that any course that includes placement should qualify for these benefits as well.

Bangin if you are currently a student I'd speak to your SU and see if they will take this on board as something to campaign about.

TheNHS is on its knees because it cannot recruit and retain band 5 nurses

So they have completely shot themselves in the foot with 'saving money' because all that means is that they pay agency's workers with it instead

No, choosing to have a family and then go back and study is a luxury.

If you don't want to pay for childcare costs whilst training, then wait before having children.

There's no saying they will end up working for the NHS or even working at all, plenty go to uni and then never have careers.

15 hours (termtime) per week is the universal entitlement.

The 30 hasn't really rolled out yet, and it looks like it might not be widely available, as settings may not be able to afford to offer it.

There is however nothing to stop an employer setting up a nursery and offering subsidised places (OK there might be tax issues if it's deemed a benefit, but they can be managed). The NHS is a big employer and often requires staff to work antisocial/variable hours; perhaps lobbying for more extended-hours in-house provision would be a way ahead?

YANBU but my experience of needing childcare whilst working in the NHS was that getting irregular shift patterns covered from early morning until late evening, plus nights, plus weekends meant that accessing childcare at all was extremely difficult.

*agency

Random S there

Sirzy, the childcare from student finance is means tested so if a student has a partner who works, the amount you get is reduced. The threshold seems to be quite low.

Yep. When I trained I got something like a 2k bursary and wasn't entitled to childcare tax credits even though I "worked" 30 hours a week unpaid at the hospital.

Yanbu
I'm a nursery manager and I think all children from 1 year should get 30 hours subsidised childcare irrespective of family circumstances

Yes it's rubbish and has had exactly the effect everyone predicted, which is that applications have dropped considerably. IMO trainee nurses and any other allied healthcare profession trainees that spend a lot of time on placement being used as a dogsbody receiving high quality work-based training (the reality is partway in between) should get paid as a healthcare support worker for those hours, OR get a bursary. Otherwise it's just slave labour.