Definition of Vacancies and Vacancy Rates (as used in NHSE/I’s NHS Provider collection)

A vacancy is defined as a post that is unfilled by permanent or fixed-term staff. Some vacant posts may be filled by agency or temporary staff, but these posts are still considered to be vacancies.

The number of vacancies is the difference between the number of reported full-time equivalent (FTE) permanent or fixed-term staff in post and planned workforce levels (i.e. the total funded or budgeted establishment on an FTE basis). The number of vacancies is on an FTE basis.

The vacancy rate is a calculation of the FTE number of vacancies as a percentage of planned FTE workforce levels.

1. FTE stands for full-time equivalent.

2. This definition describes what could be considered notional vacancies, i.e. the gap between establishment and actual staff in post, on an FTE basis. This measure does not directly address questions around hard to fill vacancies, provision shortfalls, recruitment activity or natural churn. However, as a concept it is easy to understand, and can be provided by trusts on a consistent basis that allows appropriate comparisons across the system.

3. The number and rate of vacancies can be derived on aggregate or partitioned into appropriate staff groupings.

4. The number of vacancies is calculated as the planned FTE workforce minus the reported FTE staff in post. 

That is: Vacant Posts (FTE) = Planned Workforce (FTE) - Staff in Post (FTE)

5. The vacancy rate, as a percentage, is the FTE number of vacancies divided by the FTE planned workforce, multiplied by 100

That is: Vacancy Rate (%) = [ Vacant Posts (FTE) ÷ Planned Workforce (FTE) ] x 100

6. Planned workforce (establishment) is taken at a specified point in time and includes only budgeted posts.

7. FTE permanent or fixed-term staff in post refers to that at a specified point in time. It does not include additional hours/overtime, bank or other non-substantive employees such as agency staff.

As NHSI collects vacancy FTE from providers on a monthly basis, this monthly rate is defined as the total number of unfilled posts reported at the end of each respective reporting month. It is therefore important when reviewing trends in vacancy data, that a comparison to the same period in the previous year is used to ensure expected monthly variation associated with planned recruitment cycles is not interpreted as genuine change to current vacancy levels.