Received from: CSP
Congress notes that seven per cent of physiotherapy staff leave the NHS annually – a higher rate than nursing – with half of these leaving within the first five years of their careers.
Most of these leavers remain state registered as physiotherapists, but their skills are lost to the NHS and its patients.
Congress believes that a service linked loan-forgiveness scheme – available to staff joining the NHS, its sub-contracted services, local government and charities – would help the public sector retain early-career physiotherapists and other clinical staff.
Congress believes such a scheme would be economically progressive: in 2023, the government was warned that incoming changes to student finances – including the lowering of the repayment threshold to £25,000 earnings and extending repayment terms from 30 to 40 years – would cost low- and middle-earning physiotherapy staff a projected £30,000, and effective operating as a regressive graduate tax.
Congress calls on the TUC to work with the Treasury and the Department for Education to introduce a service-linked loan forgiveness scheme for physiotherapy staff and other clinicians working in the NHS and wider public sector.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy