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Issue 12 - 07/2014
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Student Services
Business Services Authorityprovided by…
Issue 20 - July 2016
NHS StudentBursaries
Social WorkBursaries
EducationSupport Grant
If you’re from a university, college or assessment centre that works with students who are eligible for NHS or social work bursaries, please subscribe to Bursary News. Email us at [email protected] with your full contact details and we’ll add you to our distribution list.
StudentServices
Issue 20 - July 2016 2
NH
S St
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tBu
rsar
ies
Soci
al W
ork
Burs
arie
s
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ucat
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Supp
ort G
rant
Welcome to Bursary News!
Stud
ent
Se
rvic
es
Operational update for NHS Student Bursaries
Operational update for Social Work Bursaries
Social Work Bursary allocations 2016/17
Changing how healthcare education is funded
Update about EU bursary students
Customer satisfaction survey results
Guide to Disabled Students Allowances for NHS Bursaries published
Annual report published
NHS Bursaries debt
Help us shape our new website
Medical and dental tuition fees 2016/17
Reporting concerns of fraud
Your dedicated helplines
Contents
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Hello and welcome to this edition of Bursary News, providing information and updates from Student Services.
I am pleased to report an excellent service delivery position for the current peak application period. Students have responded
well to our requests for application submissions, and this ensures we can make bursary payments on time for the start of the study year. We still need students to respond when their application is at a pended stage; this may be because we are awaiting additional essential evidence that we need to complete the bursary assessment. If NHS Bursary students have not yet received confirmation of their bursary award, they will need to check their Bursary Online Support System (BOSS) account to review the status of their application.
On 21 July 2016 the government published its initial response to the Reforming Healthcare Education Funding consultation. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changing-how-healthcare-education-is-funded. The NHS Business Services Authority continues to be engaged with the funding reforms, and we are working closely with key partners to enable a smooth transition for any changes that are implemented.
I hope you find this edition of Bursary News helpful. If you have any comments or ideas for future articles, please email [email protected] with your suggestions.
Kerry HemsworthHead of Service - Students
Issue 20 - July 2016 3
Operational update for NHS Student Bursaries
All NHS students who are eligible to apply for a bursary must make an online application every year through their Bursary Online Support System (BOSS) account. For more information about reapplying and about BOSS, please visit our website at http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Students/3942.aspx
Your students can find the application window tables on our website at the appropriate link below. These tables clearly show students when they can apply/reapply for their NHS Bursary and what their deadline is. Other useful guidance on making a bursary application is also provided on these web pages.
Please encourage your students to apply for an NHS Bursary as soon as possible rather than waiting until close to their application window deadline date. This ensures we do not get a bottleneck of applications just before the deadline and helps us to assess applications and set up payments in a far more timely manner, ready for the start of their academic year.
Continuing Students
New Students
The tables below outline our current position for the 2016/17 intake:
New students:
Total applications expected 23,916
Total applications approved 9953
Total applications in process (in the queue) 2069
Total applications pended (awaiting evidence/further evidence) 7604
Total number of students not applied 4290
Continuing students:
Total applications expected 47,699
Total applications approved 29,197
Total applications in process (in the queue) 2934
Total applications pended (awaiting evidence/further evidence) 7324
Total number of students not applied 8244
Please ensure your students are aware that if they miss their application window deadline, there may be a delay to their bursary payments for that academic year.
In all cases, students should make their bursary applications (which must include all supporting evidence) within six months of the first date of their academic year.
Issue 20 - July 2016 4
Operational update for Social Work Bursaries
Social Work Bursary application forms for the academic year 2016/17 can be found on our website at www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/students/986.aspx.
Please encourage your students to apply for a Social Work Bursary as soon as possible rather than waiting until close to the deadline date. This allows us to assess applications in preparation for the capping allocations being received and set up the correct payments for students ready for the start of their academic year. At the time of publication, the bursary allocations and rates for 2016/17 have not been confirmed yet by the Department of Health. As soon as we have any updates, we will communicate directly with all HEIs and students. The expected numbers contained in these tables are estimates based on previous years’ intake, so they may change.
The tables below outline our current position.
Total applications expected 3,432
Total applications approved (subject to capping data from universities/awaiting confirmation of enrolment)
1497
Total applications in process 12
Postgraduate students (based on 2015/16 numbers)
Total applications expected 5,542
Total applications approved (subject to capping data from universities/awaiting confirmation of enrolment)
2933
Total applications in process 15
Undergraduate students (based on 2015/16 numbers)
The Department of Health (DH) had originally planned to confirm the Social Work Bursary allocations for HEIs and the Education Support Grant (ESG) rates for the 2016 academic year, by the end of May. Unfortunately, the publication of the information packs containing the allocations and ESG rates has been delayed, but will be published as soon as possible.
We appreciate this is causing a concern for HEIs and as soon as we receive confirmation from the DH we will issue a communication.
Social Work Bursary allocations 2016/17
Issue 20 - July 2016 5
The UK remains a full member of the European Union (EU) and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force.
EU students who are eligible under current rules to receive NHS and Social Work Bursaries from the NHS Business Services Authority remain eligible for courses they are currently enrolled on or about to start in the 2016/17 academic year. Information on the eligibility criteria, including residency rules, is available on our website and the gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-bursary-scheme-rules-2016.
Update about EU bursary students
Changing how healthcare education is funded
Further to the government consultation on reforming healthcare funding, the consultation response has now been released on gov.uk. To read it in full please click on the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changing-how-healthcare-education-is-funded
Part one of the government response outlines the basis of the government’s offer to nursing, midwifery and AHP students, including supplementary funding for travel, dual accommodation and childcare allowances.
To ensure the supply of postgraduate healthcare students, the response also clarifies their funding situation.
The second part of the consultation response will include an updated impact assessment and equalities impact assessment and will be published in the autumn.
The consultation received about 1,750 responses.
Issue 20 - July 2016 6
Customer satisfaction survey results
Thank you to all of your students who took part in our NHS Bursaries and Social Work Bursaries satisfaction surveys in December 2015. The key findings are:
NHS Student Bursaries
The survey was completed by 2,664 students, of which 60% were studying nursing. The average satisfaction rating for NHS Student Bursaries overall is 8.4 out of 10, an increase from 8.0 out of 10 last year. Average ratings for other key measures are:
• 7.9 out of 10 for the application process
• 8.4 out of 10 for customer contact• 8.5 out of 10 for the website
Social Work Bursaries
The survey was completed by 1,061 students, of which 59% were undergraduates and 41% were postgraduates. The average satisfaction rating for Social Work Bursaries overall is 8.7 out of 10. Average satisfaction ratings for other key measures are:
• 8.5 out of 10 for the application process
• 8.6 out of 10 for customer contact• 8.6 out of 10 for the website
We’re using all of the results to improve our service to your students and we’ll be conducting a satisfaction survey for HEIs to take part in later in the year.
Issue 20 - July 2016 7
Guide to Disabled Students Allowances for NHS Bursaries published
From 2016/17, the Secretary of State has discretion to determine whether the additional costs a student is obliged to incur in connection with undertaking a course because of their disability will be covered by Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs). This reflects the support that universities and colleges should be providing in their duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.
In partnership with the Department of Health, we’ve published an online guide which explains how this discretion will be exercised. This is aimed at establishments who have responsibility for students with disabilities (universities, colleges, assessment centres etc.) and applies to students applying for DSAs for the first time in an academic year beginning on or after 1 September 2016.
You can read the guide on our website at:
http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Students/5065.aspx.
Keep an eye on our website news as we’ll shortly be publishing a quick guide for students, summarising all of the rules and processes around DSAs.
Issue 20 - July 2016 8
Annual report published
Student Services published its annual report for the financial year 2015/16 earlier this month.
The primary purpose of the report is to provide an overview of Student Services’ performance during the 2015/16 financial year, detailing all bursary expenditure and transactions for NHS Student Bursaries, Social Work Bursaries and the Education Support Grant. You can view it on our website at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Students/5038.aspx
Issue 20 - July 2016 9
NHS Bursaries debt
NHS Bursaries’ current debt position is £14.9m with the majority of debt relating to students withdrawing from training and students overestimating the expense of childcare. Student Services has been proactively working with HEIs in order to reduce the debt position and these initiatives have included:
• workshops at stakeholder events • HEIs sending in notification of withdrawals more promptly• time lapse reporting tool, which is shared with Health Education England (HEE) on the return
rates of student withdrawal notifications from HEIs• offsetting underpayments against the debt, where available
High volumes of students do return to training and some will actively repay their debt either through their NHS Bursary or a separate agreement with our finance team. However, there still remains significant numbers of students who fail to contact us in relation to outstanding debt and make repayment arrangements. Once a student completes training it is often very difficult for us to trace them.
We are currently doing further work to improve the debt position and this includes recovering debt from final year students’ NHS Bursary final payment. We obviously do not want to cause hardship or distress at such a critical point in a student’s programme, but the debt is public funds which we all have a responsibility to protect.
Any outstanding debt will not be of any surprise to students as they will have been contacted on several occasions to contact us to discuss a repayment method before this action is instigated.
We hope for your continued support in reducing NHS Bursary debt.
Issue 20 - July 2016 10
Help us shape our new website
We told you in the last edition of Bursary News that we were in the early stages of developing a new NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) website and asked for volunteers to try it out during the various stages of development, but we haven’t had much of an uptake.
Like our current website, the new site will have separate sections for each of our service areas. The Student Services section will be the first to be developed, and it will act as a prototype for the other NHSBSA services’ sections.
We have already carried out a detailed ‘discovery’ exercise to identify who uses our current website and why. The work carried out on our new website so far has been based on this research, but we’re committed to making sure that the new site fully meets its users’ needs by using volunteers to test it.
We’d really like to hear from anyone who uses our current website, including anyone with visual impairments or other accessibility requirements.
If you’re interested in taking part, please email our Digital and Online Team at [email protected]. They’ll contact you when we begin user testing with more details about what’s involved.
Issue 20 - July 2016 11
In September 2015, NHS Student Bursaries introduced a new method to submit one consolidated invoice for a list of pre-approved medical and dental students’ tuition fees. Over 8,450 students’ fees were processed using this method, ensuring the majority of funding was delivered to the universities in December 2015.
We propose to offer this method again for 2016/17.
In mid-September 2016, we’ll issue a sample list of medical and dental students who may be eligible for tuition fees. This will be provided to allow you to cross check, code and validate the information we hold. Please do not take any action to invoice from this list. You may use this advance sample list to check which eligible students have not yet applied for their bursary and actively encourage them to do so. Students must complete their NHS Bursary application within six months of the first date of their academic year.
Then, in mid-October 2016, we’ll issue a revised sample list of medical and dental students who may be eligible for tuition fees. Please do not take any action to invoice from this list.
Between 21 and 25 November 2016, we’ll issue a revised list of medical and dental students who are in payment as at 18 November 2016. You must check each student is in attendance on 1 December 2016 and then send one referenced invoice to our Accounts Payable team at the email or postal address below, dated no sooner than 1 December 2016, and attach your list. This will avoid you having to type each student’s name and reference number. This process will be repeated in December 2016 to allow for students who are late submitting and completing their application.
In 2016/17 there will be a change in the rate for some medical/dental students. Undergraduates who commenced their course on or after 1 September 2012 may be eligible for £9,000 and undergraduates who started before 1 September 2012 may be eligible for £3,465. Postgraduate students may be eligible for £3,465.
Intercalating students will not initially be included in the consolidated invoice process, due to the university data field containing the main university details, rather than the university that funds will be paid to. If you would like to provide a list of intercalating students, we can validate and provide a pre-approved worksheet in order to generate a consolidated invoice for intercalating students. Alternatively, these may be invoiced individually.
On or after 1 December 2016, please send your invoice and attach the complete pre-approved spreadsheet to [email protected] or post it to us at:
Accounts PayableNHSBSAStella HouseGoldcrest WayNewburn RiversideNewcastle upon TyneNE15 8NY
If you require further information, please contact [email protected]
Medical and dental tuition fees 2016/17
Issue 20 - July 2016 12
If you have a query and can’t find the answer on Ask Us, our online
self-help enquiry system, you can call our advisors on:
NHS Student Bursaries
Social Work Bursaries
Your dedicated helplines
0300 330 1342
0300 330 1372
Reporting concerns of fraud
Do you have any suspicions of bursary fraud happening in your university?
Suspicions can be reported in confidence to trained personnel through the NHS Protect Fraud Corruption Reporting Line (FCRL).
Telephone: 0800 028 40 60(Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm)
Email: [email protected](anytime)
Online: www.reportnhsfraud.nhs.uk
(anytime)
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