Funding · England
NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF)
NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) is administered by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. The figures below are the published 2026/27 rates. Adding up every element that carries a published figure, it is worth up to £11,000 per academic year for the professions that qualify for every element, if you meet each element’s own conditions. 11 of the allied health professions on this site qualify.
What it is
The NHS Learning Support Fund is extra, non-repayable money for students on eligible pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses at universities in England. It sits on top of the ordinary student loans system rather than replacing it, so you must be eligible for both a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan from the Student Loans Company to claim any element of it. The rules for 2026/27 are the 10th edition, published on GOV.UK.
The elements below are separate awards under one scheme, and they are conditional in different ways. Some are flat payments made to everyone on an eligible course; some are assessed against household income; some reimburse costs you have already incurred and are worth nothing to you unless you incur them. Reading the scheme as a single headline figure is the mistake that leads people to budget for money they will never see.
Adding every element that carries a published figure gives £11,000 per academic year for the professions that qualify for every one of them. Treat that as a ceiling rather than an expectation: it is what the scheme pays somebody who satisfies every condition attached to every element at once, which very few students do. The arithmetic is set out line by line below so you can strike out the elements that do not apply to you.
- Nation
- England
- Academic year
- 2026/27
- Administered by
- NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care
- Routes funded
- Undergraduate degree and Pre-registration master’s
- Elements
- 5
What each element pays, and on what condition
The amount column is the figure the administering body publishes. Where it is blank, no rate is published — either the award is assessed individually or the guidance sets limits rather than a single sum.
| Element | Amount | Basis | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training grant | £5,000 | academic year | Non-income assessed and does not need repaying. Paid to eligible students on approved pre-registration courses; pro rata for part-time students. It is not means tested and does not affect student loan payments. Assessed from 1 September each academic year. |
| Specialist subject payment Some professions only | £1,000 | academic year | Non-income assessed. Paid on top of the training grant to students on designated shortage subjects who started their course after 1 September 2020. The eligible subjects are radiography (diagnostic or therapeutic), prosthetics and orthotics, orthoptics and podiatry, plus mental health nursing and learning disability nursing. Applies to podiatrist , orthoptist , prosthetist/orthotist , diagnostic radiographer , therapeutic radiographer . |
| Parental support | £2,000 | academic year | Non-income assessed. For students with parental responsibility for at least one dependent child under 15 years of age, or under 17 if the child is registered with special educational needs. Pro rata for part-time students. Formerly called the Child Dependants Allowance. |
| Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE) | Not published | claim | Non-income assessed reimbursement of excess travel and temporary accommodation costs incurred attending a practice placement, based on actual expenditure within published limits. Limits for 2026/27 include up to £82.50 per night for commercial accommodation and 42p per mile for a motor vehicle. No single fixed annual amount is set. |
| Exceptional Support Fund (ESF) | £3,000 | academic year (maximum) | Income assessed. For students facing unexpected, exceptional financial hardship. Paid up to a maximum of £3,000 per student per academic year; awards may be lower. |
Work out what you would get
This is arithmetic on the scheme’s own published figures, and nothing else. Elements published on the same basis — here, per academic year — are added together. Where the scheme publishes more than one rate for the same payment, only the highest is counted, because you can only receive one of them. Elements published on a different basis are listed separately below and not added, because adding a per-claim reimbursement to an annual grant would produce a number that means nothing.
A total appears only where every element in the group carries a published figure. If one does not, the components that exist are still shown and the total is left uncomputed. That is the honest position: an incomplete sum presented as a total is worse than no total at all, because you would budget against it.
What you get here depends on which profession you are training for, so the groups below differ. Follow a profession link for the routes into it and what each one costs.
Orthoptist , Prosthetist/orthotist , Podiatrist , Diagnostic radiographer , Therapeutic radiographer
- Training grant — £5,000
- Specialist subject payment — £1,000
- Parental support — £2,000
- Exceptional Support Fund (ESF) — £3,000
Up to £11,000 per academic year
The sum of the 4 elements above, payable only if you meet the conditions attached to each of them.
Applies identically to these 5 professions.
Dietitian , Occupational therapist , Operating department practitioner , Paramedic , Physiotherapist , Speech and language therapist
- Training grant — £5,000
- Parental support — £2,000
- Exceptional Support Fund (ESF) — £3,000
Up to £10,000 per academic year
The sum of the 3 elements above, payable only if you meet the conditions attached to each of them.
Applies identically to these 6 professions.
Who qualifies
The scheme funds the undergraduate degree and pre-registration master’s route s. If you are training by another route, this is not the scheme that applies to you — compare the routes for your profession before you apply.
- Dietitian — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Occupational therapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Operating department practitioner — what the job is · undergraduate degree and degree apprenticeship
- Orthoptist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Prosthetist/orthotist — what the job is · undergraduate degree and degree apprenticeship
- Paramedic — what the job is · undergraduate degree and degree apprenticeship
- Physiotherapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Podiatrist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Diagnostic radiographer — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Therapeutic radiographer — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Speech and language therapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
What does not qualify
Exclusions decide more applications than entitlements do. Read them before you commit to a course on the assumption that it is funded.
How it works with student loans
The LSF is supplementary to the mainstream student loans system, not an alternative to it: applicants must be eligible for both tuition fee and maintenance loan support from the Student Loans Company and are asked to produce their student loan award notification as evidence. Students on eligible pre-registration MSc/PGDip courses draw undergraduate-rate loans from Student Finance England rather than a Postgraduate Master's Loan, and claim the LSF on top.
This is the part applicants most often get wrong, and getting it wrong is expensive: apply for the wrong student finance product and you can end up with less money, no entitlement to the scheme on this page, and a course already under way. Check which product your specific course is designated for with the university before you submit anything, because designation is set course by course rather than by the award name.
How to apply
Applications go to NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, not to your university, and most schemes run to a deadline set from the start of the academic year. Apply as soon as you have an unconditional place — several elements are assessed from the start of the year and cannot be backdated indefinitely.
How this compares with the rest of the UK
The same course can be funded on four different bases depending on where you study. If you are choosing between universities in different nations, this is a bigger financial difference than tuition fee headlines suggest.
Also in England
Undergraduate-rate student finance for pre-registration postgraduate (MSc/PGDip) courses
This is the single most misunderstood point in AHP student funding.
Postgraduate Master's Loan (England)
The Postgraduate Master's Loan is a single contribution towards fees and living costs for a standalone master's degree, paid direct to the student.
Degree apprenticeship funding (England)
A degree apprenticeship is a job, not a student place.
The other nations
- SAAS standard student support for AHP courses (Scotland) — Scotland
- Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary (PNMSB) — Scotland · 2025/26
- NHS Wales Bursary Scheme — Wales · 2026/27
- Department of Health (NI) healthcare bursary for AHP students — Northern Ireland · 2026/27
Carry on from here
- All funding schemes — Every scheme across the four nations
- Compare training routes — What each route costs and what it pays
- Every approved course — Filter by nation to see which funding regime applies
- NHS pay bands — What you earn once you are registered
- Degree apprenticeships — The salaried alternative to student funding
- Sources and licensing — Where these figures came from
Where this page’s data comes from
Figures published by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care for 2026/27. Rules change every academic year — confirm with the scheme’s own guidance before you rely on any figure here.
- NHS Learning Support Fund guidanceDepartment of Health and Social Care (administered by NHS Business Services Authority) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · updated annual · checked 3 September 2026Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- HCPC register summary and registrant snapshots (aggregate)Health and Care Professions Council · No open licence stated; HCPC copyright · checked 3 September 2026
- nhsbsa.nhs.ukCited page