Following an announcement made before Christmas regarding financial incentives for student nurses and "most allied health professions", the government has confirmed that diagnostic and radiotherapy students in England will receive a £5000 annual maintenance grant, which they will not have to pay back.
In addition, they will be eligible for a further £1000 for diagnostic radiography as a 'shortage profession' and therapeutic radiography as one of the SIHED professions designated by the Office for Students as 'hard to recruit'.
The government says that additional funding may be available for students in certain geographical regions but details are yet to be announced.
The grants will be available to new students and students already on pre-registration courses from September 2020. The funding is in addition to the loans which replaced the student bursaries several years ago.
Charlotte Beardmore, the Society's director of professional policy, welcomed the grants and said, "We hope this will be helpful in attracting students to diagnostic and therapeutic radiography programmes.
"It is positive to see the additional funding for the shortage professions and the support for childcare."
Students on pre-registration programmes for most of the 14 allied health professions will benefit from the new funding with the exception of art, drama and music therapists, and osteopaths.
Charlotte commented, "It is disappointing to note that the annual maintenance grant isn’t being provided to all the AHP professional groups."
Details on how students will apply for the additional funding are yet to be announced but the Council of Deans of Health has produced several blogs and a Q&A.