Publication, Part of NHS workforce statistics

NHS Workforce Statistics - December 2020 (Including selected provisional statistics for January 2021)

Official statistics

Publication Date:: 25 Mar 2021
Geographic Coverage:: England
Geographical Granularity:: Ambulance Trusts, Care Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Hospital and Community Health Services, Hospital Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, NHS Trusts, Regions
Date Range:: 30 Sep 2009 to 31 Dec 2020

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Introduction

Summary

This report shows monthly numbers of NHS Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) staff working in NHS Trusts and CCGs in England (excluding primary care staff). Data is available as headcount and full-time equivalents and are available every month for 30 September 2009 onwards.

This data is an accurate summary of the validated data extracted from the NHS HR and Payroll system. Additional statistics on staff in NHS Trusts and CCGs and information for NHS Support Organisations and Central Bodies are published each:

September (showing June statistics)

December (showing September statistics)

March (showing December statistics)

June (showing March statistics)

Quarterly NHS Staff Earnings and monthly NHS Staff Sickness Absence reports and data relating to the General Practice workforce and the Independent Healthcare Provider workforce are also available via the Related Links below.

We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating Monthly HCHS Workforce as the subject heading, via [email protected] or 0300 303 5678.

Highlights

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person and allows for the total workforce workload to be expressed in an equivalent number of full-time staff. 1.0 FTE equates to full-time work of 37.5 hours per week, an FTE of 0.5 would equate to 18.75 hours per week.

All NHS Hospital & Community Health Service (HCHS) staff

1,170,771 FTE in December 2020. This is 4.4% (49,094) more than in December 2019.

1,319,010 Headcount in December 2020. This is 4.0% (50,752) more than in December 2019.

Professionally qualified clinical staff*

Professionally qualified clinical staff make up over half (53.1%) of the HCHS workforce (621,962 FTE) in December 2020. This is 4.2% (25,032) more than in December 2019.

692,466 Headcount in December 2020. This is 3.9% (25,972) more than in December 2019.

* This group includes all HCHS doctors, qualified nurses and health visitors, midwives, qualified scientific, therapeutic and technical staff and qualified ambulance staff.