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The nursing vacancy rate in England has fallen to the lowest level in seven years, according to official data, as a result of the government’s recruitment drive to attract more overseas staff to the NHS.
In the first three months of the year, 7.5 per cent of positions for nurses, midwives and health visitors were unfilled, the lowest figure since records began in 2017, according to data from NHS Digital.
In March, 31,294 nursing roles were vacant within the health service, compared to 44,195 in mid-2019 when the vacancy rate peaked at 12.3 per cent.
The decline reflects a drive to hire more nurses from abroad by the NHS and a surge in the number of trainees during the Covid pandemic. However, analysts warned that more needs to be done to boost domestic recruitment if long-term workforce targets are to be met.
The health service’s problems are often blamed on a lack of workforce planning, which has led to a severe shortage of homegrown nurses. The government’s NHS workforce plan, published last year, included a “step change in the recruitment of international nurses” to help increase numbers in the short term.
“The recent increase in the numbers of new nurses has been hugely dependent on recruitment from overseas,” said Ruth Thorlby, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation think-tank.
“Internationally trained nurses are an important and valued part of the workforce,” she said. “But the ‘NHS long-term workforce plan’ has set out ambitious plans to increase the domestic workforce in the future and reduce reliance on temporary staff and recruitment from abroad.”
In November, the government met its commitment to expand the nursing workforce by 50,000 over this parliament. But the number of training places will need to rise 65 to 80 per cent above 2023 levels to meet the 2031 recruitment targets.
Nursing enrolments at UK universities fell sharply last year, according to data from the university and colleges admissions service (Ucas) showing the government is adrift of its aim to boost domestic recruitment.
In 2023, the number of acceptances on nursing courses fell 12 per cent year-on-year, with signs of even weaker demand for those starting in 2024-25.
Patricia Marquis, executive director of the Royal College of Nursing, said patient demand continues to outstrip the number of nurses across the system.
“Staff are overwhelmed and burnt-out but instead of investing in the domestic nursing workforce, the government has become over-reliant on international recruitment,” she said.
Data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the profession’s regulator, showed the number of new nurses from overseas increased almost fivefold between 2019 and 2023, with around half of the new international registrations last year arriving from the Philippines and India.
The Department for Health declined to comment.
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