Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many community health nurses were employed by the NHS in each year since 2010.

Since May 2010, the number of nurses working in the National Health Service has increased by almost 6,200 full time equivalent (FTE), which is an increase of 2.2%. We have also announced an increase of more than 5,000 extra nurse training places every year.

NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics and the following table shows FTE community health nurses working in the NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England from 31 May 2010 to 31 October 2017.

Community health nurses are a specialty group of the nurses and health visitor’s workforce.

NHS Hospital and Community Health Services: Community health nurses working in NHS trusts and CCGs as at each specified year (FTE).

Source: NHS Digital monthly workforce statistics

The Five Year Forward View acknowledged more needs to be done to transform community nursing. To meet the unprecedented demographic challenges and the complex needs of delivering care closer to and within people’s homes, there is an urgent requirement to increase numbers, capability and image to transform community services. As a first step, Health Education England with NHS England and partners will be embarking on a comprehensive review of the current range of community based nursing qualifications.