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Health Service Staff

Volume 204: debated on Friday 28 February 1992

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To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total number of people employed by the NHS in England on a full-time and part-time basis.

At 30 September 1990, the latest date for which figures are held centrally, there were 585,300 full-time employees and 358,700 part-time employees.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the increase of staff in district health authorities since April 1989.

Figures at April 1989 are not available. The increase between September 1989 and September 1990, the latest date for which figures are held centrally, was 900 whole-time equivalents (0·1 per cent.). Over the same period there was an overall decrease of 200 whole-time equivalents in the NHS.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the cost of the campaign to recruit nurses in each of the last five years; and whether a similar campaign to recruit social service staff will be run.

The cost of the nurse recruitment campaigns in England in each of the last five years was:

£
1986–871,126,770
1987–88832,494
1988–892,338,093
1989–904,183,780
1990–913,367,420
We have no plans for a campaign by the Department to recruit social service staff. It is for local authorities, as employers in the personal social services field, to take the lead in securing the provision of an adequate work force. We did however hold a seminar in March 1991 with the Association of Directors of Social Services and the local government management board on manpower planning and work force analysis issues. The Department is also funding a major programme of research on social services work force issues at the National Institute for Social Work.