Mr. Peter Hughes:

They are moving to different services, either private services or psychiatric services in the United Kingdom where they have more educational opportunities and the cost of living is lower. They are leaving the services.

Another development that will take a long time to repair was the decision in 2012-13, when the graduate scheme was introduced, to tell psychiatric nurses with a four-year honours degree who were just about to qualify that they would be paid 80% of their salary the following year and 90% the year thereafter. Many of this cohort of graduates emigrated and the message coming back from them is that they will not return. The only reason any of them would return would be if the salary on offer made it worthwhile to do so. These nurses were highly disenchanted when they left and it will be very difficult to persuade them to return.