I am pleased today to announce that the Department of Health and Social Care is taking decisive action to break down long-standing barriers to NHS careers and to open up opportunity to people from every background.
For too long, where you grow up and how much your parents earn has had too big a say in whether you can become a doctor, a nurse or a healthcare professional. That is bad for opportunity and bad for the NHS. Too many talented people are being locked out of careers that they are more than capable of succeeding in. This Government are determined to change that. We are taking decisive action to ensure that careers in the NHS are open to everyone with the ability and ambition to succeed, and to build a workforce that truly reflects the communities it serves. The professions should be elite, not elitist.
First, we are setting a clear national ambition to widen access to medicine. By 2035, we will increase by at least 50% the proportion of students entering medical school who received free school meals. Today, just 7% of accepted students come from these backgrounds. That is not a reflection of talent, it is a reflection of unequal access to opportunity, and it must change. Progress will be tracked transparently, supported by a new advisory group bringing together schools, universities and social mobility charities, such as the Sutton Trust and the Social Mobility Foundation, to drive sustained improvement.
Secondly, we will better target medical school places to the parts of the country that need them most. This includes areas with poorer health outcomes, ageing populations, and communities that have historically been under-represented in medical careers. By training more doctors locally, we will not only strengthen the workforce, but improve care for patients and tackle health inequalities.
Thirdly, we are taking action to make medical training more accessible and more sustainable, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. From 2026, up to 25% of students at participating medical schools will be allocated to local foundation training places, enabling them to train and work closer to home. Alongside this, we will pilot new approaches to postgraduate training that reduce unnecessary geographical movement, to see resident doctors stay in one place for longer, easing the financial burden and disruption to family life.
Fourthly, over the next three years we will fund 2,000 places on access to medicine programmes to support young people from England’s most deprived areas to apply to university. This will see a significant expansion in opportunity, with the intention that this will result in nearly doubling the number of places on these programmes each year, by delivering 650 places in 2026-27, 650 in 2027-28 and 700 in 2028-29.
Fifthly, we will deliver 2,000 additional nursing apprenticeships over the next three years, backed by a £65 million investment for nursing apprenticeships. These “earn while you learn” opportunities will be focused in areas with the greatest need, allowing people to build skilled, well-paid careers in the NHS without needing to leave their communities or take on up-front costs.
Finally, we will go further to ensure that NHS recruitment reaches those who have too often been overlooked. Building on the success of the Widening Access Demonstrators programme, which has already supported over 1,000 individuals into pre-employment training, we will now extend this work across 14 integrated care boards. Alongside this, we will roll out successful proven pre-employment models nationally through £15 million in Government funding over the next three years, helping more people to take their first step into NHS careers.
These measures will deliver more opportunities for thousands of young people across the country, break down barriers and tackle inequalities. As part of our 10-year health plan, the Government are ensuring that the health service has a strong, diverse workforce that is critical to building an NHS fit for the future.
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