PLANS to tackle the nursing crisis on the Isle of Wight were mentioned in the House of Lords this week.

During a House of Lords evidence session on regenerating seaside towns, members talked about ways employers in coastal communities could grow their own staff, to prevent young people from moving away — only to ‘come back when they are 60 and buy a nice big house on the coast’.

Prof Ian Fribbance from the Open University said: “That brings us back to the beauty of the part time and the flexible.

“So, for example, we support nursing programmes. We have huge successes on the Isle of Wight and in Cornwall where there has been a big push to develop nurses from other categories of staff and that has really worked out well.

“Students who have stayed in those places and studied flexibly and part time are more likely to stay than if they go off to London.”

The Isle of Wight NHS has offered 15 young people an apprenticeship and accepted another 14 on a pre-apprenticeship programme, in a bid to tackle the nursing crisis on the Island.

There has been a regional decline in student nursing numbers across adult and mental health services.

You can watch the full debate online.