Removal of ad-hoc locum FTE and headcount from the main totals
From this release onwards, we are publishing information on the ad-hoc locum cohort separately in Annexes B and C of the Excel Bulletin, and no longer include them in the main headline totals. This means that the headline FTE and headcount figures from December 2017 – when we first began collecting data about this cohort – appear lower than the previously published figures. We have made these changes partly because the ad-hoc locum figures are not a snapshot at the end of the reporting period, but instead are collected and calculated differently. Furthermore, due to the nature of the reasons that ad-hoc locums tend to be employed by practices, such as to cover short-term GP absences, there is a risk that including the ad-hoc locum counts in the main FTE and headcount figures, distorts our understanding of capacity within the workforce. However, in the Using this publication section we provide some guidance on now these figures may be added together to understand the total level of provision.
Removal of fully estimated records
Not all practices submit data although the completeness of the collection has been greater than 99% since December 2018. However, even practices that submit data may not provide information for all staff groups.
In cases where practices did not provide data for all four staff groups, we used to calculate estimates based upon the assumption that data for the affected staff group was missing, rather than concluding that a zero count for that group was a true reflection of the practice’s workforce. Following investigations, we have cause to question this assumption and therefore have withdrawn all fully estimated records. This means that the reported figures for the early years of the collection may be lower than the true picture and is particularly true for the first three collections (September 2015, March 2016, and September 2016) when the coverage of the NWRS collection was appreciably lower than for subsequent reporting periods. Since December 2016, data has been received from over 98% of practices and more information about the coverage of the collection is available in Annex A of the Excel Bulletin and in the Data completeness section of the Background data quality section. As the removal of the fully estimated records has a greater effect for the first three collections, we encourage users to treat these figures with care.
Similarly, not all practices provide details of contracted or working hours, but we have retained estimates for these known individuals. Annex A in the Excel Bulletin provides details of the scale of these partial estimates which varies by reporting period and staff group.
Zero hours contracts
Data for staff on zero hours contracts was not processed consistently for all staff groups. In some cases, particularly for GPs and nurses, this somewhat inflated the headcount figures as staff contributing 0 FTE still contributed to the overall headcount.
For DPC and administrative staff, this inflated the FTE figures as we calculated estimates where no working hours were provided.
We are now processing data for all staff on zero hours consistently which means if we receive information about hours worked during the reporting period, we include them in the FTE and headcount figures.
Forthcoming changes
From July 2021 onwards, we will be publishing this series of Official Statistics every month. We advise all users to take care when interpreting these figures and urge all users to make comparisons across time only to the same point in previous years. As this will be the first time that these statistics have been produced for certain months, it will not always be possible to make comparisons with previous years which should be taken into consideration when interpreting the figures.
Every April, following changes such as CCG mergers, we revise the Individual and Practice-level CSVs to reflect the latest geographical structures which enables users to better understand the workforce history and trends within their regions. We issue these new files as close to the start of the financial year as possible and advise you accordingly.
There are a number of planned structural changes that are expected over the coming year and approximately 42 Integrated Care Systems are expected to replace CCGs/STPs during the financial year. We will reflect these changes in our Official Statistics in due course and advise you when the changes are made.