Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS funded organisations in England and Wales recruited nursing associates in each of the years between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Suggested reply
As of September 2024, there are 6,161 full time equivalent nursing associates employed across National Health Service trust and integrated care boards in England, and a further 1,167 in general practice organisations and primary care networks.
The following table shows the number of NHS trust and other core organisations, like integrated care boards and their predecessors, who had one or more nursing associates join the organisation over a 12-month period ending in September, each year from 2018 to 2024:
12 months ending | Count of organisations with nursing associate joiners |
September 2019 | 140 |
September 2020 | 132 |
September 2021 | 179 |
September 2022 | 188 |
September 2023 | 195 |
September 2024 | 189 |
Source: NHS England’s NHS Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce Statistics.
Notes:
Nursing associates joining a body could be staff moving from another staff group or level of employment in the same organisation, likely moving from being a trainee nursing associate to being fully qualified, they could be newly employed within an organisation, having already undertaken nursing associate roles or training elsewhere, or they could be returning from unpaid breaks in service such as maternity leave or career breaks. The data is not available to assess nursing associate joiners in other NHS funded organisations, such as in general practices and primary care networks.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many general practice surgeries in England and Wales currently employ nursing associates.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not hold this information centrally. Nursing associates are one of a number of roles through which Primary Care Networks (PCNs) can claim reimbursement for salaries, and some on costs, through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. These roles provide appointments and perform clinical and administrative tasks as part of the wider general practice multi-disciplinary team. Staff recruited under the scheme are employed at a PCN level.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to meet the targets for increasing the number of nursing associates included in the 2023 NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of September 2024, there were 6,161 full time equivalent nursing associates employed across National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England. This is 424, or 7.4%, more than a year previously.
Training and retaining talented NHS staff is absolutely central to our mission of rebuilding a health service that is fit for the future. Our 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS will establish how to train and provide the staff the NHS needs, including nurses, to care for patients across our communities. The refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan will deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and will ensure that the NHS has the right people, including nursing associates, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to increase the adult social care workforce.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The adult social care workforce is growing, with Skills for Care data reporting that in 2023/24 there were 1.705 million filled posts, an increase of 70,000 filled posts compared with 2022/23.
The independent commission, announced on 3 January, will look at how we recruit, retain, and recognise the adult social care workforce. We are already taking action through a number of reforms including introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement and expanding the Care Workforce Pathway (the new national career structure) to make the adult social care sector more attractive. We will support care workers to safely take on further duties to deliver delegated healthcare activities, with the right training and clinical governance in place.
In September 2024, we launched the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme, which allows employers to claim for funding for training courses and qualifications on behalf of eligible staff. We are also launching a national recruitment campaign in February 2025 to encourage suitable candidates to apply for immediate vacancies by highlighting the varied and rewarding work available.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase financial support for nursing associates who wish to become registered nurses.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have a complete apprentice pathway for nursing, from entry level to postgraduate advanced clinical practice. Nursing associates can go on to become registered nurses through a degree apprenticeship, allowing people to earn a salary while gaining a nursing qualification.
Nursing associates can also become registered nurses by completing a shortened undergraduate nursing degree. For those taking this route, the NHS Learning Support Fund provides eligible students with a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year. The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. The Government attempts to strike a balance between ensuring students are financially supported during their studies and delivering maximum value for money for the taxpayer.
Training and retaining talented National Health Service staff is absolutely central to our mission of rebuilding a health service that is fit for the future. Our 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS will establish how to train and provide the staff the NHS needs, including nurses, to care for patients across our communities. This summer we will also publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many student nursing associates completed their training for adult social care in each year from 2018 to 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested. As the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is responsible for nurse registration. The NMC publishes the number of UK trained nursing associates joining its register for the first time in England, which will be a close proxy for the number completing training. Skills for Care data shows that in 2023/24, there were 700 nursing associates in adult social care, a decrease of 50 from 2022/23.
The following table shows the number of UK trained nursing associates joining the NMC register in England for the first time, each financial year from 2018/19 to 2023/24:
Year | Number of UK trained nursing associates joining the NMC register for the first time |
2018/19 | 485 |
2019/20 | 1,182 |
2020/21 | 2,708 |
2021/22 | 2,743 |
2022/23 | 3,166 |
2023/24 | 3,343 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2024 Annual Data Report
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many registered nurses were employed by the NHS in each year from 2013 to 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of full time equivalent (FTE) registered nurses, including health visitors, employed across National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England, each year from September 2013 to September 2023:
Date | FTE nurses and health visitors |
September 2013 | 274,627 |
September 2014 | 278,981 |
September 2015 | 281,474 |
September 2016 | 284,288 |
September 2017 | 283,853 |
September 2018 | 285,674 |
September 2019 | 291,533 |
September 2020 | 304,490 |
September 2021 | 313,836 |
September 2022 | 322,701 |
September 2023 | 341,015 |
Source: Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce Statistics, NHS England.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many registered nurses and registered nursing associates left the Nursing and Midwifery Council resister in each of the years from 2018 to 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally. As the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is responsible for nurse registration. The NMC publishes annual reports on its website detailing registration data, including the number of leavers, covering the period 2018 to 2023.
The following table shows the number people leaving the NMC register by registration type and financial year:
Year | Midwife | Nurse | Nurse and midwife | Nursing associate | Total |
2018/19 | 1,587 | 27,202 | 351 |
| 29,140 |
2019/20 | 1,439 | 23,757 | 286 | 8 | 25,490 |
2020/21 | 1,333 | 22,344 | 215 | 43 | 23,935 |
2021/22 | 1,474 | 25,222 | 305 | 134 | 27,135 |
2022/23 | 1,490 | 24,774 | 245 | 250 | 26,759 |
2023/24 | 1,432 | 25,203 | 251 | 282 | 27,168 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council Annual Data Report.
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many student nurses completed their training as a registered nurse in each year from 2018 to 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes data on the number of students qualifying from higher education courses in the United Kingdom, and this includes information on a broad ranges of undergraduate nursing courses. The published data is not detailed enough to allow for the reliable identification of all students completing courses which specifically lead to registered nursing status.
As a proxy for the number of students completing nursing courses each year, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) publishes information on the number of UK trained nurses joining their register for the first time, who are resident in England. The following table shows the number of UK trained nurses joining the NMC register in England for the first time, each financial year from 2018/19 to 2023/24:
Year | Number of UK qualified registered nurses joining the NMC register for the first time |
2018/19 | 16,726 |
2019/20 | 17,503 |
2020/21 | 15,083 |
2021/22 | 15,132 |
2022/23 | 16,420 |
2023/24 | 18,478 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2024 Annual Data Report
Asked by: Lord Willis of Knaresborough (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many nursing associates completed their training to become registered nurses in each year from 2018 to 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested. Whilst the Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes data on the number of students completing higher education courses in the United Kingdom, it does not publish data in a detailed enough way to allow for the identification of nursing associates completing subsequent registered nursing training.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council publishes information on their register, including the number of nursing associates across the UK who have added nursing or midwifery registration status. The following table shows the number of nursing associates adding nursing or midwifery register status, in each of the last five financial years:
Year | Nursing associates adding nursing or midwifery registration |
2019/20 | 0 |
2020/21 | 52 |
2021/22 | 120 |
2022/23 | 585 |
2023/24 | 1,571 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2024 Annual Data Report.