Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many health visitors are employed by the NHS; and how many were employed on 1 September 2010.

The number of health visitors working in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England is published monthly by NHS England as part of their NHS Workforce Statistics Collection. The data can be found in the nurses by setting table at the following link:

https://files.digital.nhs.uk/A7/641198/NHS%20Workforce%20Statistics%2C%20June%202023%20England%20Provisional%20statistics.xlsx

The data includes staff employed by NHS trusts and commissioning bodies, but excludes staff directly employed by primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers such as community interest companies and private providers.

Local authorities have been responsible for commissioning health visiting services since 2015. These services may be commissioned from NHS trusts as well as other providers.