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No more than three days have passed since Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council were forced to admit that they could no longer afford the number of teachers currently employed by the Local Authority, we recieve yet another blow from New Labour. The number of nurses and midwives who are unemployed six months after qualifying has increased, nationally, by over 80% in the last three years.
The figures, quoted by Lib Dem News and acquired by the Liberal Democrats Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb MP, show that six months after graduating:
The figures, quoted by Lib Dem News and acquired by the Liberal Democrats Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb MP, show that six months after graduating:
- Almost three-quarters more nurses and midwives are now working in jobs outside of their profession than in 2002/3
- Nearly a third more doctors are unemployed than in 2002/3
- Over 1,000 nurses were unemployed in 2005/6, the most recent year that statistics are available
The Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP said:
"This is a disgraceful waste of human talent and a scandolous use of public money. Its no surprise that so many committed healthcare professionals have lost faith in the way that Labour has run the NHS."
3 comments:
I agree with your comment about NPT Council but given that neither of the Lib Dem councillors bothered to speak against or vote against the recent NPTCBC budget, isn't it a bit rich to criticise something that you never opposed when you had the chance?
I hardly find this news surprising; and although this should be of real concern. I have highlighted the glut of teachers being produced in Wales previously.
A couple of years ago I asked the following research to be carried out in WAG:
Are schools experiencing difficulties in recruiting physics teachers in Wales. Which subject is recruitment most difficult in?
The number of teacher vacancies is published annually by the National Assembly for Wales Statistical Directorate . The latest data available shows data for January 2005. This shows that at that time, there were 2 vacancies for teachers of physics at secondary school level in Wales. There were 3 vacancies in 2002/03 and 2003/04. The highest number of vacancies were in English and Mathematics, with eleven vacancies each.
The Statistical Directorate also publish information on the numbers of posts advertised in secondary schools in Wales. The latest data is for between 1 January and 31 December 2004. For that period, there were 32 posts for secondary physics teachers advertised, for which 30 appointments were made. The highest number of posts advertised were for secondary English teachers – 120 posts were advertised and 111 appointments made.
I would suggest any of your readers look at the Graduate Teacher Training Register website.
You will see that Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea Metropolitan universities are offering Physics with Science courses, three universities offering courses for three vacancies!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although this is a vast improvement from previous years, when practically all universities in Wales and a number of the Institutes were offering some sort of Science Teaching qualification.
I really think that we should look at the situation in Wales and in Essex, Wales has a population of around 2.9 million people, while Essex is roughly two thirds the population at 1.8 million, in Wales there are numerous Teacher Training establishments, as previously discussed. Look at GTTR and you will see that there’s only one teacher training organisation, namely Essex Primary Schools Training Group.
Back to the nurses: my dear old mum broke her hip last year, whilst recovering in the Princess of Wales Hospital, I went visiting her. I asked one of the Student Nurses there if she’s got herself a job since she was coming to the end of her three year training, she replied “No”; she had applied for a job in Wales, but there were some 180 applicants for the one job.
Jean Bellingham has also commented on the 800 odd student nurses in Swansea University, do we have that many vacancies in Wales? I very much doubt that we’ve got this many vacancies in the UK as a whole. Looking at the UCAS website and doing a search for “All Nursing Courses”, there are some 478 courses in the UK.
So, what Universities and Colleges in Wales offer such courses?
• Bangor University
• Cardiff University
• University of Glamorgan
• North East Wales Institute
• Swansea University
It very much seems to me that we are producing graduates for the sake of producing graduates; and why not, it makes good economic sense. By students being in full time education, they aren’t in employment, so you need fewer jobs. Additionally, you can increase the retirement age from 65 to 68 a three year increase corresponding to the three years people are in College/University for.
Additionally, we can get tradesmen and tradeswomen from Poland.
Increasing the retirement age means you don’t have to pay out so much in State Pensions. Keeping someone in full time education for three years also means that they are racking up debts. The level of personal debt in this country of ours is high, and I believe I’ve already suggested to you that the several trillion pounds worth of personal debt is replacing the Balance of Trading deficit, i.e. instead of having a huge Balance of Trading deficit have a massive level of personal debt.
Regards
Gary Lewis
Secretary Bridgend Liberal Democrats
Following the initial comments about the Two Lib Dem Councillors not voting at the recent NPTCBC budget, how many Ratepayers turned up and how did they vote?
As regards the thousands of unemployed nurses and teachers, they should follow the example of Mr Blair, there are plenty of jobs in the United States for properly qualified teachers and nurses.
If anonymous want to know how I know this it's because I've just come back from the US, San Francisco and Boston to be exact; someone we (wife and myself) know in Boston is a Nurse, last year she earned $90,000 (circa £42,000). One major drawback the yanks see with the US is the price of "gas" at $3.50 per gallon, until we told them that it would cost $7.60 in the UK.
Someone else we know and met up with in Boston couldn't believe that Blair was sucking up to Bush in the way he did!!!
G Lewis
Sec., Bridgend Lib Dems
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