Physiotherapists

Ben Chapman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new NHS jobs have been created in physiotherapy in (a) Liverpool, (b) Wirral and (c) Cheshire in each of the last five years. (94894)

The information is not available in the format requested. The table shows the number of qualified physiotherapy staff working in the former Cheshire and Merseyside strategic health authority area.

*National health service hospital and community health services: qualified physiotherapy staff as at 30 September 2001 to 2005*
	Headcount
2001	901
2002	915
2003	942
2004	1,027
2005	1,112
Notes: The Information Centre for health and social care, non-medical workforce census

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) research she has carried out and (b) assessment she has made of the effect of agenda for change on job and career progression opportunities for graduate and junior physiotherapists. (94895)

The national health service staff council has the responsibility for monitoring the implementation of agenda for change and the effects on NHS staff. This is carried out through its sub groups which include an equality and diversity group, job evaluation consistency checking group and the knowledge and skills framework group. The Department has carried out no separate research in this area.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many physiotherapist posts there are in the NHS; and what estimate she has made of the number of posts which will be available to new graduate physiotherapists in each of the next three years; (95661)

(2) how many physiotherapists graduated in each of the last five years; and how many physiotherapist (a) posts and (b) vacancies there were in the NHS in each year.

Information on the numberof physiotherapist posts, and the number of physiotherapists who have graduated each year is not collected centrally.

The three-month vacancy rate, vacancy number and the number of physiotherapy staff for 2006 and in each of the last five years are shown in the following table.

Information Centre for Health and Social Care vacancies survey—Three month vacancy rates, number and staff in post for qualified physiotherapy staff in EnglandPercentage of three month vacancy rateNumber of three month vacancy Number of staff in post (whole-time equivalent)1Number of staff in post (headcount)120015.065512,51515,60820025.271512,99216,21220034.767113,58616,88520044.162614,45517,92220052.946415,56419,13920061.118316,29119,997 1 Staff in post data is from the non-medical workforce census as at 30 September previous to the specified year. Notes:1. Vacancy data is from the vacancy survey each specified year. 2. Three month vacancy information is as at 31 March each specified year. 3. Three month vacancies are vacancies which trusts are actively trying to fill, which had lasted for three months or more (full time equivalents). 4. Three month vacancy rates are three month vacancies expressed as a percentage of three month vacancies plus staff in post. 5. Three month vacancy rates are calculated using staff in post from the non-medical workforce census 6. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. 7. Vacancy and staff in post numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number. Source: The Information Centre for Health and Social Care Vacancies Survey The Information Centre for Health and Social Care Non-Medical Workforce Census

Volume 451: debated on Monday 6 November 2006