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Publication, Part of

NHS Vacancy Statistics England April 2015 – March 2022 Experimental Statistics

Experimental statistics, Official statistics

Publication Date:
26 May 2022
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Ambulance Trusts, Care Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Hospital Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, NHS Trusts, Regions
Date Range:
01 Apr 2015 to 31 Mar 2022

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NHS Vacancy Statistics England April 2015 – March 2022 Experimental Statistics

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Introduction
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Summary

This is the latest compendium publication in the NHS Vacancy Statistics series containing vacancy related data for the NHS which provide four different views on recruitment information for the NHS.

Data from NHS Jobs, the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and Trac Recruitment Management Software (Trac) provide a range of proxy data sources for NHS vacancies. The series also includes management information related to vacancies within the NHS which have been collected by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I).

Users should note these data do not indicate how much of the reported substantive gap is filled by temporary staff.

Due to the complex nature of how NHS vacancy data is defined and collected, all data sources should be treated with a degree of caution.

We have included a data visualisation resource for the first time within this edition of the publication. It is designed to give users immediate insight into different outcomes at Regional aggregations and can be found below the Key Facts. As with all elements of the publication, we welcome feedback on this as we continue to investigate ways of gaining maximum value from the data.

To help with the development of this publication, feedback can be sent to: [email protected] with the subject heading ‘NHS Vacancy Statistics publication feedback’.

Key Facts

Data from NHS England and NHS Improvement

show a vacancy rate of 10.0% as at 31 March 2022 within the Registered Nursing staff group (38,972 vacancies). This is a slight increase from the same period the previous year when the vacancy rate was 9.2% (34,678 vacancies).

Please note that these data do not indicate where vacancies are filled by temporary workforce.

NHS Jobs data

NHS Jobs is transitioning users to the new NHS Jobs service and an increasing number of Trusts are now using that to advertise their vacancies. Until a data flow has been established from the new service, we are unable to quantify the number of vacancies being advertised on it. Users of the data should be aware that affected Trusts may appear to show lower levels of vacancies than reported in the past. National and local totals are also affected.

During the COVID-19 pandemic

there was considerable disruption to recruitment activity within the NHS. This was apparent from the lower reported advertised vacancies between March and June 2020 as the NHS was fully focused on dealing with the first wave of the pandemic. 

Whilst pressures of the pandemic have fluctuated since the summer of 2020, we believe that the headline figures included in the bulletin remain of immediate use, as they represent the situation as it was at the time.

Last edited: 26 May 2022 10:03 am