Maternity Services: Staff
(asked on 5th January 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many maternity support workers there were in the NHS in each of the last five years.
Answered by
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the full-time equivalent number of maternity support workers working in National Health Service hospital trusts and other core organisations in England, annually from September 2018 to 2023:
Year | Maternity Services | Neonatal Nursing | Total |
September 2018 | 6,843 | 417 | 7,260 |
September 2019 | 6,951 | 435 | 7,386 |
September 2020 | 7,126 | 474 | 7,600 |
September 2021 | 6,987 | 464 | 7,451 |
September 2022 | 7,195 | 443 | 7,638 |
September 2023 | 7,577 | 485 | 8,063 |
Source: NHS Workforce Statistics, NHS Digital
Notes:
- Maternity support staff can be defined as all support staff that work in the ‘maternity services’ and ‘neonatal nursing’ care settings, with the latter including Special Care Baby Units. This includes nursing associates, nursery nurses, nursing assistants/auxiliaries, healthcare assistants and support workers.
- The data includes staff employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations. It excludes staff directly employed general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers such as community interest companies and private providers.