Skip to main content

Publication, Part of

NHS Workforce Statistics - April 2026

Official statistics

Publication Date:
25 Jun 2026
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Ambulance Trusts, Care Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Hospital and Community Health Services, Hospital Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, NHS Trusts, Regions
Date Range:
30 Sep 2009 to 30 Apr 2026

Current Chapter

NHS Workforce Statistics - April 2026

View all

Next Chapter

Introduction

Official Statistics in Development - release of data on the Community workforce

We have released data for the first time relating to the Community workforce within this publication. This is based on the NHS workforce as recorded on the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). A new table and CSV can be found under “Resources”.

For clarity, this publication therefore does not cover Community Healthcare Providers not using ESR.

We have worked with a range of stakeholders within this field to refine a definition for the Community workforce. This definition draws on a selection of Occupation Codes, Areas of Work, and Trust types. The full definition listing all the Occupation Code, Area of Work, and Trust type inclusions has been made available to accompany the data release.

Defining this section of the workforce is difficult owing to the way that staff are categorised and recorded within ESR; as such these data have initially been classed as Official Statistics in Development. As with all such releases, we will review feedback and introduce changes if required. If you have any feedback, please contact [email protected].

Our intention is to refresh and publish the data monthly.

25 June 2026 09:30 AM

Page contents

Summary

This report shows monthly numbers of NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) staff. The data is split between staff working in NHS Trusts and other core organisations in England (excluding primary care staff), and staff working in NHS support organisations and central bodies. Data are available as full-time equivalent and headcount and for all months from 30 September 2009 onwards.

These data are a summary of the validated data extracted from the NHS HR and Payroll system.

Monthly NHS Staff Earnings, monthly NHS Staff Sickness Absence reports, and data relating to the Primary Care workforce are also available via the Related Links below.

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 [email protected] or 0300 303 5678.

Key Facts

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person and allows for the total workforce workload to be expressed in an equivalent number of full-time staff. 1.0 FTE equates to full-time work of 37.5 hours per week, an FTE of 0.5 would equate to 18.75 hours per week.

All staff in NHS Trusts and other core organisations

1,373,838 FTE in April 2026. This is 0.1% (1,841) less than in April 2025.

1,540,206 Headcount in April 2026. This is 0.2% (2,330) less than in April 2025.

Professionally qualified clinical staff* in NHS Trusts and other core organisations

Professionally qualified clinical staff make up over half (55.1%) of the FTE HCHS workforce.

757,618 FTE in April 2026. This is 2.1% (15,871) more than in April 2025.

 

839,118 Headcount in April 2026. This is 2.1% (17,433) more than in April 2025.

 

* This group includes all HCHS doctors, qualified nurses and health visitors, midwives, qualified scientific, therapeutic and technical staff and qualified ambulance staff.

Last edited: 25 June 2026 2:11 pm