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PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
NHS: Staff (8 November 2024)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS staff have been non-patient facing in each of the last ten years.

Asked by:
Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain)

Answer

The following table shows the number and percentage of the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) workforce employed by National Health Service trusts and other core NHS organisations in England that are in NHS infrastructure support roles, this being a proxy for non-patient facing roles, as of each August from 2014 to 2024:

Year

Total staff

NHS infrastructure support staff

Percentage of total staff who are infrastructure support

2014

986,595

153,363

15.5%

2015

1,006,026

156,824

15.6%

2016

1,031,091

161,353

15.6%

2017

1,046,979

164,339

15.7%

2018

1,067,951

170,443

16.0%

2019

1,100,273

178,371

16.2%

2020

1,159,365

184,270

15.9%

2021

1,198,746

194,546

16.2%

2022

1,230,089

202,980

16.5%

2023

1,297,455

214,501

16.5%

2024

1,348,584

218,914

16.2%

Source: NHS Hospital and Community Health Service monthly workforce statistics, NHS England, available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

Notes:

  1. the NHS infrastructure support staffing group includes staff defined as managers, senior managers, non-patient facing clerical or administrative staff, and maintenance or works staff;
  2. FTE refers to the proportion of full-time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work, as one would indicate they work a full set of hours, and 0.5 that they worked half time; and
  3. this data relates to the Hospital and Community Health Service workforce directly employed in NHS trusts and other core organisations, like integrated care boards for the latest data point, who are paid.

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Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.