Nurses
(asked on 8th October 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of nurses employed in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) England.
The Office for National Statistics has recently produced an article on the data available to compare healthcare workforces across the United Kingdom. Further information is available at the following link:
To estimate the level of the healthcare workforce across the UK, the report details a range of potential sources, including the Office for National Statistic’s published estimates of employment by occupation sector, based on the Annual Population Survey and the Labour Force Survey.
The latest data from the Annual Population Survey and the Labour Force Survey, based on the survey period April 2023 to March 2024, estimates there are 610,200 employed registered nursing professionals in England and 31,500 in Northern Ireland. As this covers registered nursing professionals, it will also include registered midwives. It covers nurses employed in any sector, so will include those working in National Health Service trusts, general practices, social care, charitable bodies, as well as private provision.
These estimates are based on a sample of the population, which means any cross-UK comparisons using this data should be done with an understanding of the potential limitations. Notably, the estimates are impacted by sampling variability across the UK, and there may be bias if certain households cannot be reached, or from respondent error. For Northern Ireland, the impact of small sample sizes means that estimates for specific occupations, such as registered nurses, have greater levels of uncertainty and are not suitable for interpreting differences between the countries of the UK.