As of December 2024, the NHS in England employed a total of 1.5 million staff members (headcount: counting each individual staff member), including 157 thousand HCHS doctors. This makes it the largest employer in England. In terms of staff groups, nurses (and health visitors) represented the biggest number, followed by support to doctors, nurses and midwives.

From 2009 to 2023, the number of support staff for doctors, nurses, and midwives in England's National Health Service (NHS) increased, reaching roughly 299 thousand full-time equivalent employees as of November 2023. This statistic shows the total number of support doctors, nurses and midwives in the NHS Hospitals and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce in England from 2009 to 2023.

As of February 2024, the National Health Service (NHS) in England employed a total of 1.34 million staff members on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis, including 140 thousand HCHS doctors. This is less than the number of NHS staff on a headcount basis, as not all employees work full-time. This makes the NHS the largest employer in England. This statistic shows the number of staff on a FTE basis in the NHS Hospitals and Community Health Services (HCHS) in England as of February 2024, by staff group.

As of September 2023, there were a total of 382,485 full-time equivalent (FTE) nurses, midwives, and ambulance staff in NHS Hospitals and Community Health Service (HCHS) in England.

Publication changes: Please read the section on 'Notes on changes to publications' within the PDF report as this highlights changes to data currently published and potentially future reports. This report shows monthly numbers of NHS Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) staff groups working in Trusts and CCGs in England (excluding primary care staff). Data is available as headcount and full-time equivalents. This data is an accurate summary of the validated data extracted from the NHS's HR and Payroll system. In addition to the regular monthly reports there are a series of quarterly reports which include statistics on staff in Trusts and CCGs and information for NHS Support Organisations and Central Bodies. The quarterly analysis is published each September (June data), December (September data), March (December data) and June (March data). Additional healthcare workforce data relating to GPs and the Independent Healthcare Provider workforce are also available via the Related Links below. This publication of April 2020 data features a supplementary file which shows trends in HCHS workforce data observed during the NHS response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 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 enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or 0300 303 5678

In 2019, over 21.1 thousand nurses in the United Kingdom held an Asian nationality, while 18.6 thousand nurses had an EU nationality. Furthermore, there were approximately 14.6 thousand Asian doctors in the UK, and 10.4 thousand doctors with an EU nationality. The highest amount of NHS workers from the rest of the World were working as support to clinical staff, with 9.4 thousand categorized in this staff group.

Make up of non-UK NHS workers

The highest share of healthcare employees who were from the EU occur in the younger age groups, with almost 40 thousand employees in the period 2016 to 2018 aged under 34 years of age. While, 39 thousand health care workers in the UK aged between 35 and 44 years are from outside of the EU. 30 thousand NHS employees working in London were EU nationals, the highest amount of any region in the UK although London is one the most populated and most diverse region in the UK.

Impact of Brexit

In 2019, it was found that almost 20 percent of healthcare professionals in the UK knew at least one colleague considering leaving their job due to Brexit. While twelve percent knew a co-worker, who had already left because of the Brexit situation. Due to the large number of workers from the EU in the NHS, the service could be very vulnerable to Brexit and the potential of many employees leaving due to Brexit.

The opinion of NHS staff across England was rather divided when asked about staff shortages within their organization. In 2024, around 43.5 percent of the NHS staff stated not to have enough staff at their organization for them to do their job properly, versus the 34 percent who though staffing levels were adequate. Overall, this is an improvement on staffing levels perceived by staff themselves compared to the previous three years.

This statistic displays the number of full time senior managers and managing staff in the NHS in England from 2004 to 2022. The number of senior managers and managing staff in the NHS in England peaked in 2009 at 39.2 thousand staff, and amounted to approximately 35.5 thousand in 2022.

Please note: Revisions were made as follows on 12 January 2011 to certain GP figures for 2009 published on 25 March 2010, to correct miscoding of GP type. The NHS IC apologises for any inconvenience caused. National headcount totals for 'GP Providers' and 'Other GPs' were revised from 28,607 to 27,613 and from 7,310 to 8,304 respectively. The National level total figure for 'All Practitioners' remains unchanged at 40,269 and no other national level headcount figures are affected. National full time equivalents totals for 'GP Providers' and 'Other GPs' were revised from 26,245 to 25,378 and from 5,866 to 6,733 respectively. The National level total figure for 'All Practitioners' remains unchanged at 36,085 and no other national level full time equivalent figures are affected. All NHS Staff refers to those directly employed by the NHS in Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) and by GP practices contracted to the NHS. It excludes high street dentists and ophthalmic practitioners. This publication is made up of three main staff group areas, which can be found by following the links: Non-Medical Staff 1999 - 2009 Medical and Dental Staff 1999 - 2009 General Practice Staff 1999 - 2009

This statistic displays the number of NHS staff employed in central functions in England from 2004 to 2022. The number of NHS central functions staff amounted to approximately 103 thousand in 2022, the highest value since 2010.

As of September 2024, there were 146,387 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors in NHS Hospitals and Community Health Services (HCHS) in England, which is more than two thousand times the number reported in September 1995.

A survey of NHS staff in the UK from 2023 revealed that roughly 35 percent of medical and dental professionals felt unwell during the 12 months before the survey due to work-related stress. This survey displays the share of NHS staff in the UK who felt unwell due to work related stress during the last 12 months as of 2023, by selected occupation group.

As of December 2024, the nursing and midwifery staff in Scotland had the highest number of FTE (full-time equivalent) vacancies among the medical workforce, with over two thousand positions vacant.

NHS Workforce statistics on bank staff employed directly by NHS trusts and paid through the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) pay and human resources system.

In England, the number of ambulance staff in the National Health Service (NHS) peaked at 21,271 full-time equivalent employees in November 2018. However, the number dropped considerably in the following year. By November 2024, the NHS HCHS workforce included around 21.3 thousand ambulance staff.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Background The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), in conjunction with the Department of Health (DH), appointed Aston University to develop and pilot a new national National Health Service (NHS) staff survey, commencing in 2003, and to establish an advice centre and web site to support that process. Administration of the programme was taken over by the Healthcare Commission in time for the 2004 series. On the 1st April 2009, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was formed which replaced the Healthcare Commission (users should note that some of the surveys in the series conducted prior to this date will still be attributed to the Healthcare Commission). In 2011 the Department of Health took over management of the survey. Since 2013 NHS England (NHSE) have been in charge of the survey programme. Researchers at Aston University were responsible for the initial development of the survey questionnaire instrument, and for the setting up of the NHS National Staff Survey Advice Centre. From 2011, Picker Institute Europe took over from Aston University as survey contractors. All organisations concerned worked in partnership to consult widely with NHS staff about the content of the new national survey. The work was conducted under the guidance of a stakeholder group, which contained representatives from the staff side, CQC, DH, human resources directors, Strategic Health Authorities and the NHS workforce. Aims and conduct of the survey The purpose of the annual NHS staff survey is to collect staff views about working in their local NHS trust. The survey has been designed to replace trusts' own annual staff surveys, the DH '10 core questions', and the HC 'Clinical Governance Review' staff surveys. It is intended that this one annual survey will cover the needs of HC, DH and trusts. Thus, it provides information for deriving national performance measures (including star ratings) and to help the NHS, at national and local level, work towards the 'Improving Working Lives' standard. The design also incorporates questions relating to the 'Positively Diverse Programme'. Trusts will be able to use the findings to identify how their policies are working in practice. The survey enables organisations, for the first time, to benchmark themselves against other similar NHS organisations and the NHS as a whole, on a range of measures of staff satisfaction and opinion. From 2013, the NHS Staff Survey went out to all main trust types - social enterprises, clinical commissioning groups and clinical support units were able to opt themselves in to the survey. Organisations were allowed to conduct the survey electronically and to submit data for an entire census or extended sample of their organisation. Previously the sample was restricted to 850 staff. The collection of data (i.e. the survey fieldwork) is conducted by a number of independent survey contractors (see documentation for individual survey information). The contractors are appointed directly by each NHS trust in England and are required to follow a set of detailed guidance notes supplied by the Advice Centre (see web site link above), which covers the methodology required for the survey. For example, this includes details on how to draw the random sample, the requirements for printing of questionnaires, letters to be sent to respondents, data entry and submission. At the end of the fieldwork, the data are then sent to the Advice Centre. From the data submitted, each participating NHS trust in England receives a benchmarked 'Feedback Report' from the Advice Centre, which also produces (on behalf of the Department of Health) a series of detailed spreadsheets which report details of each question covered in the survey for each participating trust in England, and also a 'Key Findings' summary report covering the survey findings at national level. Further information about the survey series and related publications are available from the Advice Centre web site (see link above). Main Topics:Topics covered in the survey include: work-life balance; appraisal; training, learning and development; team working; health and safety; errors and incidents witnessed; job characteristics and arrangements; management and supervision; perceptions of organisation worked for; harassment, bullying and violence; and respondents' demographic characteristics. See documentation for further details.

This statistic displays the annual average percentage change in National Health Service (NHS) staff in England from 2004 to 2014, by profession. The total number of doctors working in the NHS and General Practice has increased by 2.6 percent between 2004 and 2014.

The majority of NHS staff in England worked additional unpaid hours. In 2024, just over half of surveyed staff reported working unpaid overtime, while the other half did not. Among those who worked unpaid overtime, most did up to five hours of extra work, while three percent worked 11 hours or more. Although staff working unpaid overtime is showing signs of decrease, paid overtime has increased slightly.