Thank you for your request for information about the following:

‘In regards to the NHSBSA £5000 non-means assessed grant for healthcare students;

The DOH NHS Financial Support for Health Students (2022) states

Second degree Paramedicine students

2.7 For the 2022 to 2023 academic year, students studying Paramedicine can also have their eligibility assessed on case-by-case basis if they are ineligible for tuition fees and maintenance support because they have an equivalent or lower qualification. Students will be eligible for NHS Learning Support Fund provisions from the start of their 2022-23 academic year.

1. Since the application of the above update by the DOH, how many students in this active period have been declined due to the applicant not being eligible for student finance as a result of having an equivalent or greater qualification to that of their current course.

2. In the same period, how many students have who are not eligible to student finance have been successful in accessing the grant without referral to the assessment team.

3. In the same period, where students who are ineligible to access student finance have their grant access request escalated to the assessment team, what specific guidelines, in full, do your assessment team use to accredit and use to support decision making.

4. In the same period, what is the current number of students who are ineligible to student finance and thus require further assessment to decide if they are able to access the grant waiting to be processed.

5. What is the number of cases which are processed by the assessment team daily, for students who are ineligible for student finance and require further assessment by the assessment team.

6. What is your appeal process and what documentation do you use to guide the appeal deciding factors.

7. Since the implementation of the DOH sixth edition guidelines, if any, how many times have declined applicants who have proved themselves to be on the named course proceeded to litigation stages due to beliefs they are suffering as a result of inequality and discrimination.’

Your request was received on 5 November 2022 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Question 1

Zero applications have been rejected due to applicants being in possession of a second degree since the amendment to the funding scheme.

Question 2

71 applicants have had their application processed without further referrals.

Question 3

New and continuing paramedic students who do not qualify for full maintenance and tuition fee loan support from the Student Loans Company because they have an equivalent or lower-level qualification, may be entitled to NHS LSF from 2022 to 2023 academic year. Applications are decided on a case-by-case basis and these students are considered in the same way as students on other healthcare courses who have chosen not to claim student loan support. All non-loan applicants must show they would otherwise meet the UK residency and course eligibility criteria as defined by either:

• Student Finance England (SFE)

• Student Finance Wales (SFW)

• Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)

• Student Finance Northern Ireland (SFNI)

Question 4

Currently there are 249 outstanding applications for paramedicine students are who not currently in receipt of Student Finance England funding. However, we are unable to determine how many of these students have not claimed SFE due to the paramedicine degree being their second higher education course, or due to other reasons, without assessing the application on an individual basis. All these applications are within our service level agreements.

Question 5

The ruling around funding for second degree paramedicine students was published by the Department of Health and Social care on 1 September 2022. As stated above we have currently approved 71 applications that fall into the second-degree criteria, thus the average number of cases processed daily is less than one per day.

Question 6

The appeals process for NHS LSF cases is set out in the Department of Health and Social Care’s Financial Support for Healthcare Students, which is published annually each academic year. The current version of the rules is the sixth edition, relevant to the 2022/23 academic year. The documentation used to decide appeal cases is the rules and guidance published by the UK loan funding bodies listed in question 3, depending on the UK country of domicile for the appellant.

Question 7

We do not have any record of any applicants who have proceeded to ligation stages due to being declined funding following the implementation of the DOH sixth edition guidelines.

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