There are two weeks to go before the new financial year starts and the government have revealed that they are going to be launching a funding settlement of around £3.32 billion. This is around a £45 million rise when compared to the year before. At the end of the day, visiting has been cut to the bone when you look at the years that have followed public health grants. The grant is usually paid to councils and this is going to be ringfenced. The aim is to try and target public health services and this would include sexual health nursing as well as school nursing. Critics have stated that the last-minute nature that comes with the announcement doesn’t give people much time to plan ahead and it would seem that the 1% rise has largely been attacked. People are saying that it is inefficient when you look at the amount of pressure that has been put on healthcare as the result of the pandemic. If you work as part of a nurse agency or if you are part of a nursing recruitment agency, then you will know what a blow this is.

The Health Foundation are actually an independent charity and they have said that the allocation for the coming years are actually 24% less when you compare them to the budget that they had just a few years ago. It would seem that public allocations for healthcare services are dropping more than people realise and it’s so important that people do what they can to try and give others the help they need when it comes to overstretched nursing services. This is even more the case when you look at the impact that the pandemic has had on nurses in general.