Request for equitable financial support for care-experienced Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery students
The Hub for SUCCESS has responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the review of the Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary (PNMSB), highlighting significant inequalities faced by care-experienced students in these vital degree programmes.
PNMSB Consultation Response – Hub for SUCCESS
Our response—prepared collaboratively by a care-experienced nursing student ambassador and the Hub’s team—sets out clear evidence of how current financial arrangements disadvantage care-experienced learners compared to their peers, both within PNMSB-funded programmes and across other undergraduate degrees.
Despite representing only 1.9% of entrants to subjects allied to medicine, 17.2% of care-experienced university entrants choose to study vocational, caregiving degrees such as nursing, paramedicine, or midwifery. However, these students face unique barriers that are not accounted for in the current bursary system.
The Hub’s submission identifies three key areas of inequity:
Childcare Support:
Care-experienced PNM students receive a fixed £2,466 childcare allowance—far below the flexible, needs-based childcare funding available to other SAAS-funded students, and with no access to the Lone Parent Childcare Grant. Given their limited family networks and long placement hours (up to 2,300 hours across a degree), this places them at a significant disadvantage.Discretionary Funding:
PNM students’ discretionary hardship funding is capped at £2,400— this is £600 less than other undergraduates —and is often depleted mid-year due to significantly smaller allocations to universities compared to other discretionary funds. The Hub calls for parity with SAAS-funded students and an overall increase in available funds.Extension of Funding:
Unlike other students, care-experienced PNM students are not entitled to the additional ‘+1 year’ of SAAS funding provided to care-experienced learners on other degrees. This gap can leave students nearing qualification in severe financial hardship.
The Hub for SUCCESS is calling on the Scottish Government to:
Align childcare, discretionary, and extended funding arrangements for care-experienced PNM students with those available to all other care-experienced learners;
Ensure equitable, trauma-informed financial support across all degree routes; and
Recognise the vital contribution of care-experienced students to Scotland’s health and care workforce.
These recommendations reflect the Hub’s ongoing commitment to addressing systemic barriers and ensuring that Scotland’s corporate parents meet their obligations to care-experienced learners. As the Hub’s letter to ministers states, “Our requests are not excessive demands, but necessary adjustments to uphold fairness and provide needs-based support.”.
The Hub for SUCCESS remains ready to work in partnership with government, funding bodies, and institutions to achieve a fair and equitable funding system that supports care-experienced learners to succeed in education and beyond.
