Mental Health Services: Staff
(asked on 4th July 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many additional mental health staff the NHS plans to recruit in each of the next five years.
The published NHS Long Term Workforce Plan models the expected number of staff in different professions over the next 15 years. This includes mental health and learning disability nurses which is shown in Table 1. The wider mental health workforce is not separated out in the plan.
The following table shows the projected supply of mental health and learning disability nurses by 2036/37.
Profession | Starting Position | Projected Supply | ||
2021/22 | 2026/27 | 2031/32 | 2036/37 | |
Mental health and learning disability nurses | 21,000 | 28,000 – 29,000 | 34,000 – 37,000 | 46,000 – 48,000 |
Source: Long Term Workforce Plan
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan also highlights the increase in domestic education and training needed to meet demand in the future. For mental health, modelled demand is based on the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan and Mental Health Investment Standard. The Mental Health Plan Long term plan also sets out an ambition for 27,000 additional mental health staff by 2023/24 compared to 2018/19.
The following table shows the increase required in education and training by profession
| Training Intake | ||||
Profession | Baseline (2022) | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
Nursing – Mental health branch | 5,714 | 6,452 | 6,825 | 7,333 | 7,902 |
Note:
Current intake is based on the Student Data Collection which includes undergraduate, postgraduate and apprentices.