Chief executives of NHS hospital trusts are included under the senior manager occupation code within the workforce census, along with other executive level staff such as board members and non-clinical directors. The following table gives the numbers by gender of staff that fall under the senior manager occupational code in 1997, 2001 and 2008. Numbers for 2009 will be available following publication of the next national health service workforce census in March 2010.
headcount All staff Male Female Percentage male Percentage female 1997 England 7,528 4,159 3,369 55 45 Of which: NHS Hospital Trusts 6,107 3,317 2,790 54 46 2001 England 9,740 4,785 4,955 49 51 Of which: NHS Hospital Trusts 6,616 3,329 3,287 50 50 2008 England 11,508 5,106 6,402 44 56 Of which: NHS Hospital Trusts 6,508 3,126 3,382 48 52 Notes: 1. It is not possible to isolate the numbers of chief executives from the census data. They are included under the ‘senior manger’ occupation code, along with other executive level staff such as board members, PEC board members and non-clinical directors. 2. NHS Hospital Trust figures for 2008 should be treated with caution as they are not directly comparable with earlier years. Earlier years include staff and services that would have left NHS Hospital Trusts to form PCTs in 2002. It is not possible to remove these staff from the figures for earlier years. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.