Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many mental health nurses were employed in (1) community services, and (2) in-patient services, in the National Health Service in each of the last five years.
Mental health nurses are not identified separately in the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s (HSCIC) workforce statistics. Mental health nurses work predominantly in psychiatric services but also across a range of settings and the independent sector.
The following table shows the full time equivalent number of nurses who work in the community psychiatry and other psychiatry areas of work in the National Health Service in each of the last five years. The data is taken from the HSCIC’s monthly workforce statistics and is for 31 August in each year.
Nurses working in Community Psychiatry and Other Psychiatry August 2010 to August 2014
| Number of Full-time Equivalent Nurses in England as at 31 August | ||||
Area of Work | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
Community Psychiatry | 15,999 | 15,572 | 15,677 | 15,651 | 15,404 |
Other Psychiatry | 25,372 | 24,517 | 23,649 | 22,977 | 22,405 |
Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre