Page 2 | Student midwife worried about no NHS job after qualifying

MWNikkiJ · 2026-05-25T20:27:35+00:00

Hi everyone, I'm a mum of four and a third-year student midwife. When I started my degree, three of my children were in primary school. Over the last three years I've missed countless assemblies, performances, sports days and family time while training to support women and babies. I absolutely love what I'm doing. Despite a national midwifery staffing shortage, many newly qualified midwives now have no jobs to go to when we qualify. The NHS promised me a job when I started my degree, but that guarantee was withdrawn earlier this year. I done this to better our lives and now it feels like I wasted my time and built a huge debt. I've co-founded a student-led campaign calling for funding to ensure newly qualified midwives can enter the workforce. I'd be so grateful if you could sign and share our petition - https://www.change.org/FundFutureMidwivesUK I'd also love to hear any positive stories about a student midwife who made a difference to your pregnancy or birth experience ❤️.

DontKillSteve · 26/05/2026 08:18

floppybit · 26/05/2026 00:32

This is so awful that you have made such an effort to potentially have no job at the end of it! Sorry if I’m being thick, but can you give us a bit of a breakdown of why this is happening? There’s a shortage of healthcare workers of various kinds (midwives, nurses etc) so people have trained to do the job, but now there’s no jobs - is this because the older generation of workers haven’t retired yet? importing foreign labour? Or are they not increasing the quantity of midwives etc, even though they are needed, due to budget cuts?

All of what you said. It’s been a combination of short term planning, poor planning and relying on imports.
The main issue at the moment is Trusts are being told there is no additional money and they need to do more activity with the staffing levels they have. In addition most/all Trusts have to save huge amounts of money each year, where I work they have been told to save over 80 million pounds this financial year.
The previous government allocated more training places but didn’t allocate more funds to employ the trainees once they qualified.
Governments have also relied on many years of importing staff from overseas who were willing to work for the wages. Until last year (when it took a drop) the proportion of international joiners to UK entrants always ranged from 45.7–50%. It’s been really high and they were all employed on permanent contracts. Now we don’t need them but they have the right to remain.
It’s not that people aren’t retiring, although that is becoming harder to do as they raised the pension age significantly. Also, wages have been suppressed for decades so most NHS employees are not facing a good retirement prospect.
There is also a very high absence rate so on the ground staff are really struggling to meet demand.

OrlandointheWilderness · 26/05/2026 16:43

signed. I’m a student nurse.

Goldfsh · 26/05/2026 16:46

I'm sorry OP, it's a terrible situation. Our local trust is also reducing staff, so no new posts are to be advertised. It's very grim.

JulietteHasAGun · 26/05/2026 16:47

Besidemyselfwithworry · 25/05/2026 23:27

This is awful 😞 and I really feel for you.
what I would say is that in our nhs there is ALWAYS a lot of bank shifts available to book and so I’d say get yourself registered on the bank so you are visible to wanting to work and getting to know people etc….

Although bank work isn’t a substantive post (which they should absolutely be doing) it is a way in and can offer a level of flexibility for people.

good luck with the petition will share with nhs colleagues for you on our staff facebook and various wattsapp groups I belong too.

Trusts won’t take newly qualified midwives on the bank unless they have a substantive contract. They are supposed to be completing their preceptorship year.

LeoTimmyamdVi · 26/05/2026 19:04

Signed - my daughter is a 3rd year student paramedic. Only one trust is recruiting and 3000 applicants for 150 jobs - that is it! It is not that I think she should be guaranteed a job at the end of it - but at least a fair crack at getting a job!

LethargeMarg · 26/05/2026 20:01

Same for nurses. There’s loads of job shortages but no money to recruit to fill the gaps. And any band 5 posts advertised want experience and they don’t count placements.
the universities are being pretty terrible by taking all these students on knowing there are no jobs when they qualify.
its changed massively since Labour got in. Im actually surprised it’s not more widely known and I think many voters who moan about the NHS being a money pit would be pretty surprised at how frugal this government are being with nhs budgets

floppybit · Yesterday 01:08

DontKillSteve · 26/05/2026 08:18

All of what you said. It’s been a combination of short term planning, poor planning and relying on imports.
The main issue at the moment is Trusts are being told there is no additional money and they need to do more activity with the staffing levels they have. In addition most/all Trusts have to save huge amounts of money each year, where I work they have been told to save over 80 million pounds this financial year.
The previous government allocated more training places but didn’t allocate more funds to employ the trainees once they qualified.
Governments have also relied on many years of importing staff from overseas who were willing to work for the wages. Until last year (when it took a drop) the proportion of international joiners to UK entrants always ranged from 45.7–50%. It’s been really high and they were all employed on permanent contracts. Now we don’t need them but they have the right to remain.
It’s not that people aren’t retiring, although that is becoming harder to do as they raised the pension age significantly. Also, wages have been suppressed for decades so most NHS employees are not facing a good retirement prospect.
There is also a very high absence rate so on the ground staff are really struggling to meet demand.

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Thanks for this detailed response. I always thought that staff from overseas were on temporary contracts so to find out that’s not the case is interesting.

JulietteHasAGun · Yesterday 09:05

LethargeMarg · 26/05/2026 20:01

Same for nurses. There’s loads of job shortages but no money to recruit to fill the gaps. And any band 5 posts advertised want experience and they don’t count placements.
the universities are being pretty terrible by taking all these students on knowing there are no jobs when they qualify.
its changed massively since Labour got in. Im actually surprised it’s not more widely known and I think many voters who moan about the NHS being a money pit would be pretty surprised at how frugal this government are being with nhs budgets

Can I please point out it’s not the universities but Health Education England. They tell the universities how many students to have (and partially fund the students via the LSF grant). In England anyway.

saying that 3 years ago there was a shortage of midwives and nurses. And in many cases there still is. The trusts went and had big overseas recruitment drives with no consideration for the students. Trusts have less money every year to recruit staff due to government underfunding. Their utility bills are rocketing, national insurance contributions increasing, wages increasing. Loads of band 2 hcsw won a fight to be rebanded as band 3. It all costs money.