Midwives: Recruitment and Training
(asked on 3rd September 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on increasing the recruitment and training of midwives since July 2024.
NHS England publishes monthly Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. This covers staff working for hospital trusts and integrated care in England. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system for the National Health Service. These show that as of 30 June 2025, there are currently 24,888 full time equivalent midwives working in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is an increase of 1,326 or 5.6%, compared to 30 June 2024. Further information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
3,270 students have accepted places to undergraduate midwifery degrees at English providers so far in 2025. This is a 3% increase compared to the same point in 2024. This is also the first year-on-year increase in the number of acceptances since 2021, when acceptances across healthcare courses peaked, driven by interest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further information is available at the following link:
These are not final numbers, and the Department will continue to monitor numbers of acceptances through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services’ clearing cycle which ends in October.